This is a project I have done since the very early days of my sand sculpture journey. My good friend Nuria Valverdu Villagines was asked by the City Hall of La Pineda, Catalonia to create a nativity scene out of sand and she asked me and three others to come along to help.
I was quite surprised to hear that the Catalan crib has several other characters which are not present in the Irish one and so began the weirdness.
Over the years and with nobody telling us what to do we have transformed the project into probably the most creative and nativity in the Mediterranean. Beginning with a semi traditional one it has morphed into a project which each year has a theme that is at times mind boggling and controversial.
For this weeks showcase-Sunday I will just show the first 6 as otherwise the post will be too long.
As always you can click the image to be brought to the full story.
El Caganer (The shitter)
For my first Nativity I made a man taking a shit. This was not a joke but a very important character in the Catalan crib.
2001 a nativity odyssey begins
In some ways still quite traditional but there were hints of what was to come in trying to deconstruct the idea of the nativity.
La Pineda nativity 2002
With this one we started to explore the other stories that had led up to the birth of Jesus and also experimented with different scales.
The first breakfast nativity
Most people know the story of the Last Supper but for this year we decided to try and recreate the First Breakfast.
Muck Baby nativity
The concept for this year was to present the story in relief panel extrusions. Sure, why ever not! The sand was really awful and that is why the name stuck. Stuck in the mud.
Toy Nativity
I felt now that we were really getting into our stride of bringing in other sub-themes for the crib. It was a lot more fun than having to carve the same classical figures year after year.
Please take some time to read the posts with your morning coffee. It is always nice to give these posts a second viewing.
That's it for this week. I am busy at work on some new posts which I will publish soon.
Have a great Sunday.
