Venturing into the dimness, amidst dry bramble stems, and emerging into the daylight, surrounded by the intoxicating scent of white roses. This is the sensation evoked by one of the works at Guía de Isora’s Florida Easter, still standing today between Our Lady of Guía Church and the ravine.
Thousands of people flocked to the city centre this Saturday, on Good Friday and Holy Thursday, to enjoy a unique way of experiencing the passion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. A cultural approach that is rooted in spirituality and ephemeral art. And which, for now, is a unique proposal at a national level, as highlighted by the City Council in the programme.
Fifteen years after starting this initiative, the project director and municipal designer, Carlos Curbelo, explains that it is a “consolidated project”. He recalls that it began as a commitment to floral and contemporary art in the streets to differentiate the Holy Week celebrations in Guía de Isora on Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, and Spain.
If in 2009 they offered the public 10 or 12 setups, this year there were 25. In the streets and alleys of Guía, members of the Floral School of Hong Kong have exhibited in recent years, but also artists from the Valencian School, Asturias, or Barcelona, among others. For Curbelo, it is a source of pride that the initiative has grown in a “floral and cultural” sense. In addition to the initial sculptures, there have been added pictorial works, as well as other expressions, such as theatrical, musical or dance performances. He believes that “it grows in variety and quality”.
Miguel Martos and María Dolores Díaz are part of a group of friends who came from La Laguna to discover this expression. It is their first year. They have just entered the city centre through La Vera street and María Dolores already states, “it is worth it and we are amazed”. She believes that “more things like this should be done so that villages have another life” and that they also serve as a tourist attraction.
The mayor, Ana Dorta, explains that it “evolves more each year”. She points out that, initially, “people were somewhat hesitant, but now no one denies the elegance and respect” that these works bring, which are “unique in showing with plant material the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ”.
For Dorta, “at a municipal level, it is an important tourist attraction”, although she emphasizes that the Florida Easter also attracts people from very different places in Tenerife. She believes that the current edition has been one of the most beautiful, “but the wind has damaged and knocked down some structures”.
This is what happened to local artist José María Mesa Martín on Good Friday. The wind knocked down and broke part of the installations he placed on La Vera street, both on the pavement and on the wide facade of his two-story house, dating back to the first half of the 18th century. In this edition, Mesa opted for a different decoration from each of his five windows. From everlastings to dried fan palm (washingtonia) branches on damask fabrics; from corrugated cardboard to hyperoxidized cans of preserves, next to onion skins; from an old sample from a store to a floppy disk drive found in Ikea’s trash. Ten people helped Mesa install his work on the morning of Holy Thursday. But a day and a half later, on the Friday of Passion, he had to dismantle part of the setup, as the wind was seriously threatening to destroy it. Some pieces broke, but on Saturday morning he reinstalled what was left and many passers-by praised his effort.
The councillor for Culture, Carlos Álvarez, believes that the Florida Easter is “a very important milestone” for Guía de Isora and one of its most significant events. “It has put the municipality on the map” and proudly displays an article in the digital edition of the British newspaper The Guardian. He highlights the involvement of the town, in general, to welcome thousands of visitors between Thursday and Sunday. For Álvarez, “it is a reason for pride”.
Implicit Images
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“Each year it becomes more consolidated and provides a different vision of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ,” says Sergio Sosa, artistic director of the Adeje Municipal Folklore School. He believes that “the wonder lies in the openness to different interpretations by people, regardless of their beliefs and backgrounds; it is an implicit image, which is very necessary in these times when everything is so explicit”.
Another driving force behind the project is José Vidal, Culture coordinator of the municipal council in Isora. He highlights the presence this year of new florists from the mainland, such as Ignacio Guillén from Pamplona; Juan Chamorro from Oviedo, or Jordi Abelló from Barcelona, among others. But he also mentions the participation in this edition of Sergio Linares, Isora Art Prize winner in Sculpture last September, as well as Hugo Pitti, who created a two-metre by 1.35-metre pictorial work with the face of the Crucified Christ, next to one of the entrances to Trujillo Alley.
Judas
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Precisely, on that cobbled street, a monologue by actor Joel Hernández about Judas was performed, next to the installation dedicated precisely to that figure. “The idea is to reflect on the feeling of guilt through the character of Judas,” says Hernández, while reclaiming and attributing value to everything that the man was and thought until the moment of betrayal.
Reworked Title: Enjoying Art and Culture in Guía de Isora
Jesús actively participated in the artistic display within the Burka Theatre company during 2022 and 2023. This year, the Culture department commissioned him to write the mentioned monologue.
Meanwhile, inside the church of Our Lady of La Luz in Guía, the activity is hectic. Women are cleaning the benches, men are entering with the musicians’ music stands from the Band. Some are removing the Good Friday decorations, either by hand or with the help of a Toyota Hi-Lux, and preparing the temple for the Resurrection celebration.
A Crucified Christ made of plant material greets visitors in the Church Square, in front of the steps leading down from Calle de Arriba. Impressive.
From La Orotava
Nuria Sánchez Delgado came from La Orotava and took a photograph of the mentioned installation with her mobile phone. She expresses that the Easter season “is something completely different.” She recalls that in her town there are the Corpus Christi carpets, as another example of ephemeral art, but also points out the differences between both manifestations. Regarding what she sees in Guía de Isora, she remarks, “I quite like it, and it’s also the first time I’ve come.” She highlights that this is another way to get to know a town like the historic centre of Guía.
Also from the north of Tenerife, but this time from Aguagarcía, in Tacoronte, sisters Esther and Mila Expósito have come. They have been able to enjoy this spectacle for several consecutive years and describe the display as “beautiful, something different, lovely, not seen anywhere else, made with care and with many details.”
“Many beautiful flowers”
But, as is evident, among the audience are people from other areas of Guía de Isora. This is the case of sisters Mónica and Yanira Mesa, who are with their cousin Atteneri Donate Mesa. They state that this year “there are more exhibitions, more innovative, where natural elements are mixed with technology, but above all, many beautiful flowers.”
Some shop windows in the historic centre also displayed works by Canary Island artists, some of whom have already participated in previous editions of the Easter season.
