THE SECRET BEHIND THE BARREL
Commissioned by Bodega Otazu (Navarra, Spain)

“The secret behind the barrel” is an artistic project for Bodegas Otazu as part of Genios de Otazu.

Genios de Otazu seeks a synthesis between the creative work of the artist and that of the winemaker. Each year, an artist is chosen to reinterpret the aesthetics of a wooden barrel in his or her own language. At the same time, the artist participates fully in the winemaking process, from the manual harvest to the final assembly many months later.

In its first edition (2016-2017), Genios de Otazu features David Magán, who defines his proposal as follows:

“The great challenge I faced in this project was how to bring the colour of the material of the deconstructed barrels – both the exterior of the wood and that impregnated with the colour of the wine – into the space and, at the same time, create a work that is within my language and works with my main plastic concerns: modularity, chromatic fusion, light, building in space through the plane and actively involving the viewer in the understanding and discovery of the work.

The result I have achieved is the creation of a kind of virtual sculpture floating in the centre of a 3 x 3 metre screen. A work of light that changes with the position of the viewer, working between the boundaries of drawing and sculpture, the physical and the ethereal”.

The secret behind the barrel, 2017
300 x 300 x 200 cm
Light, oak wood, frosted glass, wood barrel, stainless steel
cable