Over the centuries, the myth of Eden has been expressed in our culture in many ways. Christopher Columbus´ travel diaries describe a heavenly geography, that forever destroyed Milton´s concept of paradise and created the notion of an imaginary realm of turquoise waters and playful palm trees. The reality of the Caribbean is far removed from these idyllic descriptions. It´s a region battered by hurricane winds and pirates, where daily life becomes a question of resilience, a typical trait shared by heroes and the wise.

Pequeña Palma Huracanada is a bronze sculpture created by Los Carpinteros at Factum Arte in 2017. It transposes Haemon´s words to Creon from ancient Greece to a tropical latitude: "In flood time you can see how some trees bend/ And because they bend, even their twigs are safe / While stubborn trees are torn up, roots and all" (Sophocles, Antigone). The sculpture is a tribute to the strength and wisdom of resilience, a reflection about the heroism that shapes these heavenly places.

One year later, the art collective started a new collaboration with Factum Arte for the exhibition Susurro Del Palmar at the Galerie Peter Kilchmann in Zurich (09 June - 27 July 2018). For this occasion, Factum Arte produced one palm tree and two banana trees using techniques similar to the ones implemented for the previous work Pequeña Palma Huracanada. This project brought Sebastián Beyro from Factum Arte's team to elaborate a new approach in order to create the banana tree leaves, based on the study of a real one located at the Real Jardín Botánico in Madrid.

Image © Galerie Peter Kilchmann

Image © Galerie Peter Kilchmann

Image © Galerie Peter Kilchmann

Image © Galerie Peter Kilchmann

Image © Galerie Peter Kilchmann

Image © Galerie Peter Kilchmann

Image © Galerie Peter Kilchmann

Learn more on la Pequeña Palma Huracanada here.