A total of 64 visual sheets with unusual landscapes of the island and 32 explanatory sheets that talk about island ecosystems make up the exhibition 'Essences of the Earth', an educational and informative exhibition designed by José María Barreto Caamaño, Alejandro Perdomo and Rafael Curbelo, which aims to tour the entire island and is now in Costa Teguise, in the Playa Bastián Park.
The exhibition aims to bring visitors closer to unpublished landscapes of the island, landscapes that have generated economy and have promoted the development of Lanzarote such as roferos, quarries, jable, volcanic stone and annexed ecosystems, in addition to the endemic plants of Lanzarote. "In these places, an extractive activity has been developed for years that has given rise to a peculiar and unusual landscape that, on occasions, resembles abstract works of art created by nature itself," explains the creator of the exhibition contents, José María Barreto, who believes that it also promotes awareness and care for the landscape as an essential component of natural and cultural heritage and contributes to promoting a new culture of the landscape and its values.
The photographs taken by Barreto throughout the island for six months reveal surprising spaces of great artistic plastic value and landscapes barely known by the people of Lanzarote themselves. Therefore, the intention of the promoters is that, in addition to the general public, students from schools and institutes approach it and learn directly from the landscape, as a curricular content that is outside the classroom.
It is a "self-supporting" exhibition, with a modular structure that requires no care and adapts to spaces. Hence, it is very practical to move it from one place to another. In fact, it was already in Haría, now it remains in Costa Teguise until next Tuesday, and will later be moved to La Villa. For the Councilor for Education of Teguise, Javier Díaz, "it is a real opportunity for the students of the municipality, who will be able to contemplate places that they have hardly ever reached and know the value of those places that have contributed so much to the development of the island".
This initiative is part of a generic project that is 'Culture in the street/Culture in movement', which has a previous exhibition, 'Hilar Fino', on the traditional clothing of Lanzarote, and which intends to develop others dedicated to cochineal and viticulture in the future. The initiative has received the support of the Teguise and Haría City Councils, as well as the Department of Culture of the Cabildo.