The unique Canarian salt landscape. Salinas Project by Luna Bengoechea

Description of project by Luna Bengoechea

The Salinas Project, which starts in 2019 and runs through 2021, is a commitment to defending the natural heritage of the Canary Islands, through the salt flats. In these natural spaces, salt is grown using an artisanal method dating back to the 17th century which consists of domesticating seawater by means of the wind and the sun so that it generates salt.

The purpose of Bengoechea with this initiative is to vindicate the artisanal production of salt in the Canary Islands, of great historical importance given the boom in salt exploitation during the 17th and 18th centuries, of which today only a few underused salt pans remain, which are relegated by the importation of industrial salt.

“My intention was to generate a series of interventions in the Canarian landscape to give visibility to these spaces. I was mainly interested in the disused or underutilized salt flats, so I began to investigate the possibilities that existed on each of the islands. The goal was to intervene in the space in each one and make a global project, which is why the Salinas Project is an open initiative,” says the artist.

After visiting different locations and examining what spaces allowed him to work on the ground, Bengoechea decided to intervene in three salt mines: the Las Puntas salt mine on the island of El Hierro, the Fuencaliente salt mine on La Palma and the Los Cocoteros salt mine on the island from Lancelot.

Salinas Project was selected within the Call for Research and Artistic Creation for the Centenary of César Manrique promoted by the Department of Culture of the Government of the Canary Islands and has had the support and collaboration of the César Manrique Foundation and the La Regenta Art Center.

An ecosystem of its own

In these interventions, Luna Bengoechea represents three wading birds for which she uses only sea salt, using 300 kg for the first salt pan, 500 in the second and 600 in the third. These birds, which feed on silt=2C, a nutrient found in humid areas with high salt content, depend on these environments during their migratory periods to carry out their stops and the nesting process. Bengoechea maintains that "an interesting symbiosis is generated in these spaces that are created by human beings and, however, become an important enclave for this type of bird, many of them in danger of extinction, such as the Kentish Plover that we had the opportunity to see in the Fuencaliente salt mine.

These works have an ephemeral vocation so as not to generate any impact on this ecosystem of their own, in this way the drawing evaporates due to the passage of time and the action of nature itself. As the artist points out, "as it is a space in which one works with a material typical of that place, I did not think it was necessary to remove the salt, since it is naturally present in the space and can stay".