An ancient and traditional past
The Ca na Costa burial site reveals the rites of the island's first occupants, who settled here between 2000 and 1600 BC. Symbolic objects accompanied the deceased: carved bone and shell buttons, flint and engraved ceramic fragments. These relics are housed in the Museu Arqueològic d'Eivissa i Formentera, in Ibiza.
Formentera's history and traditions are recounted at the Museu d'Ethnographie de Formentera. Organized by theme, the ethnological and cultural center shows that the second half of the 20th century marked a turning point in local life... but which one?
Happy 1960's
By the 1960s, artists and intellectuals from all over the world were helping to create a creative hotbed on the archipelago. Formentera, like Ibiza, attracts creative minds who come to renew their inspiration in the turquoise expanses of the Mediterranean. Following in the footsteps of Pink Floyd, painters are seduced by the wildest of the Pityuses.
Gilbert Herreyns. Herreyns, born in Brussels in 1943, fell in love with Formentera in 1969 and decided to set up his studio as a painter-engraver on the La Mola plateau. It was at this time that he created his famous geometric labyrinths, two-tone works used to decorate a Brussels metro station in the 1970s. Some time later, it was in Ibiza that he met gallery owner Carl Van der Voort, with whom he began a collaboration that would motivate him to settle permanently in the archipelago. Herreyns lived between Brussels, Ibiza and Formentera. In 1979, he abandoned labyrinths to devote himself to his repetitive works, a succession of symbols endlessly reproduced on canvas. It wasn't until 1981 that he built his famous Atelier Bleu at La Mola. For four years, he organized engraving workshops attended by artists and students from all walks of life. He was also involved in the creation of the Marché des Artisans de La Mola, where international contemporary artists were exhibited. In 1991, he flew to New York with artist Michel Mouffe. During his American period, the spots and dots introduced into his painting replaced the repetitive "crossings" experimented with in his Atelier Bleu. His return to Ibiza three years later marked the beginning of his period of exalted brushwork in 1996, before his experiments with color in 2012, which preceded the integration of natural elements into his creation and the appearance of three-dimensional works. His works are regularly exhibited on the island.
Michel Mouffe. Like his friend Gilbert Herreyns, Michel Mouffe was born in Brussels (1957) and set up his studio in La Mola. He discovered Formentera in 1986, a moment he likens to an aesthetic turning point. His almost monochrome paintings nevertheless hint at a presence, perhaps a face or silhouette. In 2017, Michel Mouffe presents the exhibition Els Pelegrins, at the Municipal Exhibition Hall (Ajuntament Vell), in San Francesc. Then in 2019, he unveils a series of paintings in tribute to the victims of Francoism shot on the island: A las cinco de la tarde. The event takes place in one of the island's oldest mansions, located at the entrance to Sant Francesc Xavier. This former farmhouse is destined to house the future Island Museum. To be continued ..
Antoni Taulé. A Catalan architect, painter and photographer, he was born in Sabadell in 1945. After completing his architectural studies in Barcelona, Taulé was immersed in the Sabadell art scene of the 1960s, and soon had his first painting exhibition. In 1970, he signed a contract to build a hotel on Formentera, and took advantage of the opportunity to set down his luggage on the island. It wasn't until 1975 that he decided to devote himself fully to painting and photography. He then left Formentera to settle in Paris and begin an international career. Antoni Taulé's figurative work is characterized by the representation of large spaces, between nature and architecture. On the canvas, an object or a character stands out in a disquieting mise-en-scene, in which shadows play a predominant role. The ensembles Ombre (1974) and Lumière de terre (1984-1988) - which take the caves of Formentera as their model - confirm the importance of chiaroscuro in the work of a painter close to the Nouveau Réalisme movement. Taulé likes to combine painting and photography. The Consell Insular de Formentera exhibited his series of silver prints highlighted with colored paint. His sensitivity to the interplay of light and shadow, as well as to perspective, is evident in these works.
Places of exhibition
From May to mid-October, art markets showcase everything made on the island. At the La Mola Artisan Market, quality paintings sit alongside locally-made jewelry, baskets and clothing. Guaranteed to be a no-brainer. Here you can meet Firefox, a Berlin artist based on Formentera. He can be recognized by his long white beard, his multicolored hat and, of course, his paintings, which combine tribal motifs and abstraction.
Formentera as seen by... Karine Bartoli: the young visual artist captures stolen moments on canvas, particularly on the beaches of the Balearic Islands. Her series dedicated to Formentera is bathed in nonchalance, yet with a certain tension. Bartoli exhibited at the Municipal Exhibition Hall (Ajuntament Vell). This venue, nestled in the Town Hall buildings, showcases the work of local and international artists throughout the year.
At Centro Antoni Tur Gabrielet in Sant Francesc, you can shop at the farmers' market on one side and visit the art gallery on the other. Painter Cynthia Díaz, born in Asturias in 1987, is a regular visitor to the island and to this center. Her figurative works, with their dazzling palette, probe the relationship between landscapes and the elements water-air-earth.
Since 2019, the Espai cultural i educatiu Far de la Mola, at the lighthouse of La Mola, has had exhibition rooms doubled as a renovated multi-purpose space. Standing 120 metres above the sea, the lighthouse of culture disseminates Formentera's heritage in a symbolic building that carries far!
