Carla

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Art · Subcategory: Sculpture · Year: 2023 · Authors: Jaume Plensa

With this name, at the end of 2023, this sculptural head by the renowned artist Jaume Plensa was installed in the outdoor space of TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes facing the Santos ravine.

This Catalan sculptor has left his distinctive mark of enormous female faces in various cities around the world: New York, Stockholm, Nice, Montreal, Tokyo. In Spain, besides Santa Cruz, only Madrid and Barcelona have some of these female figures from Jaume Plensa’s workshop. 

Carla is a unique piece made of cast iron that reaches 7 metres in height and weighs 7.8 tonnes. The author himself has revealed that this work arose from a portrait he made of a 14-year-old girl. Subsequently, the image was transformed (elongated and compressed) by computer, following random patterns, until the artist reached the desired face. Then it was realised in the form we see today.

With her eyes closed and her face turned towards the ravine’s course, with the tower of the church of La Concepción in the background, this magnificent work of art conveys rest, serenity and introspection.

Carla further enriches the already appreciable sculptural heritage located in public places in the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

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