Gymnesia
Material:
Steel
Dimensions:
72 x 23 x 16 cm
Year:
2021
The period of the Talayotic culture is the most emblematic and fascinating of the Balearic prehistory. The first news that we have of the Balearic slingers belong to the following period, called post-Talayotic (550-123 BCE), in the context of their participation in different wars throughout the Mediterranean.
This is the chronological framework where this work, Gymnastics, is located, taking references from the poem Alexandra, written by Lycophron between the years 270 and 260 BCE. History and legend converge in this work that involves Cassandra, daughter of Hecuba and Priam, king of Troy. Cassandra, possessing the gift of prophecy, but also the curse of not being believed, prophesied the defeat of her father's city, and also that, in fleeing from her, some Greeks would reach some rocky islands, called Gymnesias. There they would live in a miserable way, naked and armed with slings, and there the mothers would teach their children, fasting, the art of shooting; and they would not eat bread if, first, they did not make it fall from a stick with a stone from a sling.
With this quote, beyond the references that have traditionally made visible to us exclusively masculine aspects of this Balearic prehistoric culture, I would like to emphasize the courage, firmness and persistence of those mothers and daughters. Gymnesia, from her vantage point, delimits the horizon, perhaps dissimulating, just about to throw the stone, beyond the blue sea.