At the mercy of gales and waves, boats entering the Concha Bay have been guided by the lighthouse of Santa Clara Island since late in the 19th century, and although it figures prominently in the everyday scenery of the people of San Sebastián, it has remained abandoned at the top of the steep insular cliff since the day that the buoy was automated in the 1960s. As in a poetic rendering of justice, Cristina Iglesias, who heretofore had no work of her own to show for in the city of her birth, has finally had the opportunity to appropriate the lighthouse keeper’s house with a sculpture – named Hondalea, Basque for ‘abyss in the sea’ – which can now play liaison between those on the mainland by two of Donostia’s utmost prides, Chillida and Oteiza. The artist’s interest in the unfathomable telluric forces that sculpt landscapes crystallizes there in the form of a bronze crater that seems to rise from the bowels of the isle to crash with water from an underground cistern, recreating the stormy seabed.

To avoid crowding on the island, visits to the lighthouse artwork will be organized by means of timed entries. Reservations can be made on the website www.hondalea.eus