The artist Esteban Bernal Aguirre has worked to create “a modern and elegant trophy without losing its primitive features as an expression of a Festival faithful to its roots”
The Mining Lamp trophy is transformed and updated for the 61 years of the International Festival of Cante de las Minas. The artist Esteban Bernal presented last Thursday to the president of the Cante de las Minas Foundation, Pedro López, the new design of this “modern and elegant award without losing its primitive features as an expression of a Festival faithful to its roots, but equally alive and current”, as highlighted by its creator. Added to this is a new ‘Catedral del Cante’ with a much more vertical design.
Esteban Bernal is the author of the Festival’s trophies in recent years. “He is a versatile artist who is always at the service of the municipality of La Unión and the Cante de las Minas Foundation and his proposals are accepted because they are of tremendous quality,” said Pedro López, president of the Cante de las Minas Foundation, describing him as “visionary”, capable of “always seeing beyond”, making the Festival continue to grow. “We believe that this impressive design means that this festival is not a stagnant festival in any sense, nor in its awards,” added López.
The new design of the Mining Lamp, which represents the fifth transformation since its origins, consists of three flat pieces cut out of stainless steel, curved to provide dynamism and three-dimensionality, making this material a nod to the shine of silver obtained in mining. and with which it was previously manufactured. It preserves the two most unique original elements: the lamp and the pickaxe, instruments typical of mining work, but evolved into simpler geometric shapes and with a more modern language.
The curved base refers to the rim of the mine shaft. The rings make a game of opposite curves that reflect “the paradoxical duality between the lower darkness of the well and the light of the lamp located at the top, as well as between death and life in the mine, or suffering and prize obtained with the victory”, highlighted Bernal. In addition, instead of the engraved trophy text appearing, it is completely openwork, “like the heart of the Sierra Minera excavated and pierced by innumerable wells and galleries.” Finally, in the central part is the heart of the trophy, the luminous flame of the lamp cut out over the circle of darkness, from where it shines.
Details embossed in steel
The other trophy that was also updated in this 61st edition is the ‘Cathedral of Cante’, designed on a 4mm stainless steel sheet that pays homage to the building of the Old Public Market, the headquarters of the Festival. In it, the silhouette of one of the central walls of the monumental building, its stained glass windows, and the needles of its exterior decoration like a Gothic cathedral can be seen in a recognizable way.
“Everything in it is geometric and simple, like a flamenco comb that shows its filigree in the upper part and leaves the rest of the body free to indicate the title with the letters cut out of the steel,” said Bernal. The foundations of such a unique building are made up of a solid four-centimeter-thick methacrylate block that gives this new trophy greater elegance and modernity.
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