The form researcher who cuts stone

2023-08-05 06:32:11

Born a Vic in 1954, but Girona by adoption, Enrique Sala defines himself as a researcher of forms and considers that the creation is the result of the fusion of the artistic side and matter. Vocational sculptor, he has a fascination for geology in all its manifestations and is one of the few artists in Catalonia who still does stone carving by handbecause he believes it is “the only real way to connect with nature and the work”.

His artistic vocation was awakened when he was young, since he liked to draw and assures that he had a trace of it. He always learned from it self-taught form. Around the age of seventeen, he started making stone sculptures, but soon stopped. “I dedicated myself to other things, I had to work and I lost interest in it”, he remembers. But when he was 22 years old, he admits that his “ancestral instinct” for working with stone was awakened thanks to a very simple maneuver. “I helped my father make a hole in the wall of the wood and coal warehouse to store some beams and, from that dayI have not stopped working with stone».

The sculptor in the workshop of the Municipal School of Fine Arts of Salt, where he works on various works

Sala insists that he never got to train and learned everything on his own. “Now that I take stone carving classes, I realize how easy it is to learn when they explain it to you; it has nothing to do with learning it without help”, he says.

Enric Sala began to make sculptures and, in parallelwas working in different trades, mostly linked to stone handling. It precisely started in a quarry of Folgueroles. “It was very good for me to work there because I entered in contact with very large stones and helps you consider stone carving from another perspective». He also worked as a shifter and turner, since he worked intermittently at the quarry, and as a stonecutter on more specific assignments from individuals.

But his real vocation was to be a manual sculptor. “In Catalonia this technique has been lost, now everything is done with machines, but I have always remained firm, it is the only way to establish a real connection with the work”. This is how he defines his technique, which he embodies mainly in faces, both human and animal or even a mixture of the two, all creating a curious fusion. “No face is the same,” he clarifies. To be able to create, he is inspired by forms offered by nature itself, fromanimal skeletons to all kinds of stones or tree trunks. “More than inspiration, I believe more in perception and in the subsequent strength of translating it into stone; and to perceive something you have to look from the right place».

Sala did the first exhibitions to show his sculptural work in Vic, throughout the decade of the 1980s. At that time he also participated in a collective exhibition in Madridat the International Hunting Congress, and received one grant from the Plastic Arts Services of the Generalitat.

Sala, decades ago, working with a large stone, which has helped him polish his technique Transferred by Enric Sala

From 1990 he moved to cut off and he established his roots in the province of Girona, later he went to live in Serinyà until he moved to Olot, where he currently lives. «When you change places, many possibilities open up, that’s why I like it and specifically Olot has always attracted me, like the whole region of la Garrotxa, for the landscape it offers». In fact, Sala has a special fascination for Pyrenees, as they present a very diverse geology and biology. “When I’m on the road or walking I stop to observe nature, I take samples and study its forms, it generates a lot of magnetism; that’s why I take a notebook and make a kind of sketch, I reproduce an idea through these forms, which I will end up embodying in stone».

He especially likes to work with sandstones and marbles, as they are easier to treat. also has granit i limestone. He has handled very hard stones and, in these cases, he has to use machinery on occasion, although much of the stone work is done manually, with the help of basic tools to chop and polish it.

Detail plan of Sala, working on one of the sculptures in Salt’s workshop.

In the province of Girona, he has exhibited in several municipalities, such as Peratallada, Palamós, Girona, Celrà, Salt and Banyoles. In Girona, the shows he has held for several years coinciding with Temps de Flors, also at the Lleó Avinay house and the Punxa building, among others, stand out. As for Salt, Sala is the author of the new sculptures of the iconic otterswhich replace the previous ones of Luis Mateuin Plaça de la Vila.

Currently, Sala no longer usually exhibits as he used to and usually sells the works on the Internet. “Now I move less than before, I keep a lot of sculptures for myself but I keep doing them, in fact I can’t stop, if your ideas accumulate you can end up going crazy, the world is full of possibilities and the perceptions you get from it are endless ».

Some of the faces he has made; Sala has a special predilection for mixing human and animal faces. Given by Enric Sala

Restoration work

His professional career includes restoration work of pieces from various churches and cathedrals, such as the cathedral of Girona, that of Barcelona and the Sagrada Família, apart from temples of Vic. In addition, he has also restored different facades of the old neighborhood of Vic and some farmhouses in Peratallada Olot, Girona and Fig trees In addition, he has made reproductions of old pieces with stone.

Some of the tools he uses to work the stone by hand.

Sala has been doing restoration work intermittently, depending on the orders he received, and he has also done it self-taught. Although he did many of the jobs on his own, he also worked for a workshop in Tordera from which orders came. “Where machines can’t reach, I work by hand,” he clarifies. The sculptor adds that there is a lack of training in Catalonia, there are no specialized schools as is the case in other places in Spain such as Galicia or the north of Castile and Leon.

On the other hand, to enhance his knowledge, he has faitht studies on the geometry of growththe forming forces and the space-time concept in perspective.

Teaching, the other vocation

Enric Sala also dedicates himself to his other vocation: the teaching. He started training with children from a neighborhood in Vic. “I thought it wasn’t difficult to convey my way of working, basically everyone has hidden skills”. Before, I had done some demonstrations at fairs and art courses for teachers From 1997, he began his career as a professor of sculpture and stone carving at the School of Fine Arts in Salt, a task that still continues today. In the same school, apart from taking classes, a workshop is enabled where he works with several works. “People who have known me for many years bring me curious stones they find for me to work with,” he explains.

Enric Sala taking classes in an intensive summer course of painting and other techniques at the Municipal School of Fine Arts in Sat

The courses are aimed at people over fifteen years of age, without the need for prior knowledge of any sculptural technique. Various techniques are practiced, basically direct stone carving, modeling with clay and work with polyurethane. “They usually sign up people who have very different jobs, from masons to vets and many office workers; most are doing well to disconnect and relax». In addition, in the summers he usually runs intensive courses for children, more focused on drawing and clay modeling.

In short, Sala emphasizes that the creation of sculptural works with stone carving is a technique that involves a great mental and physical balance. “It’s difficult not to think and empty your mind, but you end up doing it, and in this way you’re more receptive to capturing new ideas; art helps a lot emotionally, and people who take courses are pleasantly surprised”, he concludes.

A sculpture of a Buddha, Sala has several that reproduce this deity