Sensitivity in the protection of the environment and awareness in the fight against cancer are two of the messages that will be reflected this year in the great tapestry of La Orotavain the Town Hall Squaremade with natural sands from the Teide National Parkbut that will dedicate a small space to recycled plastic.
With this material, two pink triangles measuring 1.58 square meters each will be built to symbolize the fight against a disease that claims thousands of victims every year despite continuous medical advances.
For this, the Artearena collective, responsible for making the great tapestry of La Orotava, asks the public to get involved and deposit empty plastic bottles, lids and any other plastic of this color in a container that will be installed near the Town Hall. This year’s sketch was released yesterday in the plenary hall of the Town Hall. The first lines began to be made on Monday and we will have to wait until Thursday, June 15, the day on which the Infra-Octave of Corpus Christi is celebrated this year, to see the final result.
The mayor, Francisco Linares; the Councilor for Fiestas, Alexis Pacheco; the parish priest of the Church of La Concepción, Honorio Campos; the director of the carpet, Domingo González Expósito and members of the Artearena collective.
It was the latter who revealed the details of the Tapestry of the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, which follows a design of continuity with that of the past 2022 but with a different proposal for social awareness.
It is a religious rug with the three prints. In the central part, the image of the tabernacle of La Concepción, which celebrates its 200th anniversary, in neoclassical style, built in marble and jasper and brought from Genoa from the workshop of Guiseppe Gaggini. María Auxiliadora will be in the tapestry on the right for her canonical coronation last Sunday, with a background of the sky made in the colors of the rainbow, recalling diversity and inclusion.
In the one on the left, you can see the image of San Isidro, with the hope that recognition from the Vatican of his official appointment as patron saint of La Orotava can be achieved as soon as possible. “I hope it arrives before May 15,” declared the mayor. Behind the image of the saint appear many wands of magicians, at the time of the pilgrimage day and, with this, the 25 years of the Brotherhood of Farmers of San Isidro are remembered. And in the background, as in the image of María Auxiliadora, you can see Mount Teide, which offers the land to continue the tradition of this ephemeral art in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento.
Letters also appear, specifically, M and A, both in the central tapestry. The first, larger and in orange colors, while the second, vertically and in the center, is white. Below both you can see the use of the colors that represent the magician’s skirt of La Orotava.
Trilogy in the great tapestry of La Orotava
This year’s carpet closes the cycle of a trilogy that began in 2019 where the recovery of ancient materials (flowers, burgados, eucalyptus and dates, among others) was introduced and the tribute to the carpet made 100 years ago (in 2019 for being the first in the square). The second was last year since in 2020 and 2021 they were smaller designs, adapted to the health crisis situation due to COVID-19.
On the one hand, this trilogy has maintained the recovery of materials and the structure of its design with the triangle as a reference in all three, but this year with an investment.
La Palma ash
15 Teide colors will be used, in addition to the black from the ashes of La Palma and green, difficult to achieve but the carpet makers hope to achieve it. Reeds will also be used that will not be glued to the ground but to another material so as not to damage the new natural stone tile recently installed in the enclosure; and flowers and ancient materials such as the shells of limpets, burgados, dates and eucalyptus bags.
As strictly religious motifs, the four evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Lucas and Juan) will be represented in small 3.5-meter-diameter tapestries that will be made by the four youngest carpetists on the team. Francisco Linares underlined the economic, social and cultural repercussion of the Patron Saint Festivities of La Orotava, given that in a week the Villa receives more than 200,000 people.
