Santa Clara University

Spanish Artists, David Ventura and Neus Hosta, Direct Sculpture Workshop

[Jo Farb Hernandez] Artists David Ventura and Neus Hosta, co-founders of the Ventura and Hosta studio in northeastern Spain, are among the foremost artisans creating monumental figures or gigantes. These figures are important components of village festivals around Catalunya and beyond. Funding from SJSU’s Natalie and James Thompson Endowment and the Center for Multi-Cultural Learning at Santa Clara University brought the two artists to Santa Clara for a three-week residency in fall 2006. Ventura and Hosta directed an intensive workshop integrated into SCU’s sculpture courses (ARTS 64/164) taught by Professor Sam Hernandez.

Prior to the arrival of the Spanish artists, Prof. Sam Hernandez presented the concept of developing ideas for the creation of cabezudos or “big heads,” the large helmet-style masks worn in conjunction with the gigantes in traditional Spanish processions. Each student was to create his/her own figurative helmet-mask sculpture after viewing Ventura’s and Hosta’s demonstrations of the different stages in the technical processes as they created a gigante of St. Ignatius Loyola (which remains at SCU). This included preparatory sketches for the design, the creation of a full-scale clay original, pulling a plaster mold from the clay form, layering special paper imported from Spain into the negative sides of the mold pieces, drying, removing, and reassembling the rough paper components, and finally painting and designing and creating costumes for each “big head.”

During the quarter, several additional elements enhanced the students’ understanding of the background and function of these works within the communities in which they are traditionally used. These included a panel discussion on the conceptual, technical, and aesthetic differences between Spanish and Mexican traditions in monumental paper constructions. Panelists were Prof. Jo Farb Hernandez (SJSU), who provided background contextual information on the tradition of using the gigantes and cabezudos in Spanish festive processions; David Ventura and Neus Hosta, presented slides of their work and information about their clients and communities; and Rubén Guzmán, Mexican paper sculptor currently living in Oakland, California, who included slides of his work as well as actual objects for the audience to view. Having the Spanish and Mexican artists interact was fascinating; among other new understandings, we all agreed that the Mexican and Mexican-American press-molded paper tradition is more freely inventive and idiosyncratic than the Spanish tradition, which is more deeply steeped in folkloric and culturally-proscribed parameters.

A selection of works by Ventura and Hosta and documentary photographs by Jo Farb Hernandez that had been on display at SJSU’s Thompson Gallery were transported to the SCU Department Gallery for a smaller and somewhat different exhibition titled “Connections and Links” after the SJSU exhibition closed. Paper works by Mexican paper artist Rubén Guzmán were also included in the SCU exhibit.

To celebrate the unveiling of the monumental gigante of St. Ignatius Loyola created by Ventura and Hosta for the SCU campus, a community-wide paella dinner was hosted by the Department of Art and Art History (prepared by Sam Hernandez and David Ventura). Later, when all of the student works had been completed, a university-wide processional and performance of all of the monumental constructions took place. Administered through a collaborative partnership between the Departments of Art and Art History, Music, and Performance Studies, the students “wore” their cabezudos and “danced” them to a percussion ensemble consisting of faculty and students from the Department of Music at SCU. The procession was enthusiastically received and covered widely in television and print, in both mainstream and Spanish-language media.

Having the opportunity to watch, study, and learn from two traditional artists from Spain helped to develop a much broader multicultural understanding among our student, faculty, and community participants than a less experiential and hands-on approach would have, and enabled us to trace those connections and explore the changes between Spanish and Mexican traditions over time within a broader context. Couched in relation to the contemporary arts issues that university students typically study, this emphasis on traditional and folk arts has broadened their bases and academic experiences, and has greatly enhanced all aspects of the university communities of both institutions.

Ventura’s and Hosta’s work is also featured in Prof. Jo Farb Hernandez’s fully illustrated book Forms of Tradition in Contemporary Spain (University Press of Mississippi, 2005) that explores the works of four traditional artists from various parts of Spain.

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