The City Council of Candelaria buys for 30,000 euros the sketches of the mural that the Consistory commissioned 20 years ago from the artist Pepe Dámaso, to paint it on the wall of the Autopista del Sur located at the height of the roundabout that distributes traffic to La Cardonera and the interior of the town center along Periodista Ernesto Salcedo street. Also included in the lot are 16 sketches of walking sticks, handkerchiefs and images from the Pilgrim’s Light series, which designed in 2008 as identifying symbols of the protagonists of the patron saint of Canary Islands.
The macromural, dedicated to fishing and pottery, was an idea raised during the first term of José Gumersindo García (2001-2003). The purpose was to occupy that retaining wall –created with the expansion of the TF-1 to three lanes in each direction between Santa Cruz and the Valle de Güímar industrial estate– located at the entrance of Villa Mariana with a painting that responded to the importance of the municipality, its symbolism and idiosyncrasy.
The mayoress, Mari Brito, thanks Pepe Dámaso for dedicating part of his work to Candelaria and for appraising the sale of it at a “symbolic price of 30,000 euros, well below the market”, taking into account the revaluation of the firm who is considered one of the most important contemporary artists from the Canary Islands.
The benefits
The City Council exclusively acquires the exploitation rights (indefinitely and worldwide), reproduction, distribution, public communication and transformation of the work. You can commercialize and exploit the images for promotional or tourist purposes, as you did with the first edition of scarves for pilgrims.
The local government informs that the purchase includes two sketches of the mural design dedicated to crafts and fishing in the municipality, «that wants to be reflected in the retaining wall of the highway located in the roundabout that distributes the traffic towards the Plaza de Teror and Santa Ana; six paintings, three canes and nine sketches of canes’.
Occupying the retaining wall of the TF-1 is an approach formulated before the extension works of this section of the highway were completed, in 2008. In May 2014, the mayor of the moment made the decision not to carry out the mural before the lack of budget availability. During a meeting with the Director of Roads of the canarian government on duty, Juan Ventura Medina, the councilor asked that the project be resumed “in the future, when the economic situation allows it.”
in safekeeping
Staffs, handkerchiefs, canes and badges make up a series that shows the most believer and intimate Pepe Dámaso, designs that he saved and rescued in August 2021, with the poster announcing the festivities of the Patron Saint of the Canary Islands that he prepared and proclaimed. The collection that today belongs to Candelaria was exhibited in August of that year at the Old Town Hall Cultural Space.
On August 14, 2021 and at the age of 88, the artist from Agaete announced the popular festival in honor of the Virgin of Candelaria, “with my cane, my handkerchief and my desire that the promises to the Virgin be fulfilled and that we all be brothers between islands. The municipal government secures with this purchase a legacy and a work that it hopes to capture in the retaining wall.
