Acisclo Manzano (Born in Ourense in 1940) creates for the City of Culture a chapel that opens to nature and dialogues in the distance with the city of Santiago de Compostela. Installed in the Bosque de Galicia (Forest of Galicia) and near the Jacobean route of Vía de la Plata, this artistic intervention has been created by the renowned sculptor from Ourense as a place of prayer and meditation, miraculous and spiritual, opened to whoever wants to retreat inside.
O prisma dos sentidos está composto por varias capas perforadas e grafiadas con estrelas, ondas e rostros nos que se filtra a luz, formando xogos evocadores e multisensoriais coa auga da choiva e o vento, ofrecendo unha experiencia única e íntima no medio da natureza.
“The prism of senses” is composed of several drilled layers, charted and engraved with stars, waves and faces through which the light filters, generating evocative and multisensorial games water of the rain and the wind, offering a unique and intimate experience in the midst of nature.
A paving stone on the floor of the central part of the work recreates the tomb of a supposed pilgrim (legend) who died in that same spot while contemplating the towers of the Santiago Cathedral from the slopes of mount Gaiás, before arriving at Compostela. [You can learn more about the legend of Don Álvaro de Coimbra HERE.]
Acisclo Manzano
With an interest for sculpture that awakened in him at a very early age, Acisclo Manzano is one of the most recognised figures of contemporary sculpture both in Galicia and Spain. He began his training in the Escuela de Formación Profesional (School of Professional Training) and in the Escuela de Artes y Oficios (School of Arts and Crafts) of Ourense, later continuing his apprenticeship afterwards in Santiago de Compostela, with Francisco Asorey and José Liste. From his first commissions, Christs and religious wooden figures, he already showed a clear tendency towards formal innovation.
He was part of the original group O Volter and also of Sete artistas galegos, and for sixty years he has exhibited his work in Galicia and other big cities in Europe and America. Recognised by critics and historians, he has received numerous awards, such as the National Sculpture Prize in 1962 and 1968.
His sculptural work moves aesthetically within the figurative universe, although at some points in his career he has come closer to the territory of abstraction.