MADRID.- At the Palacio de Cristal in Madrid’s El Retiro Park, the sculptor, painter, draughtsman and writer Evaristo Bellotti presents an installation consisting of an expanse of white Macael marble and a mass of water that rises up from the building floor to branch out in multiple directions.

The piece consists of a total of 1,668 marble flagstones of identical dimensions that were hewn by Bellotti himself in the Macael quarries in Almeria. The water emerges from the floor and flows over the marble surface, producing undulating forms that accentuate the natural beauty of the material. Extending over one thousand square metres, the installation occupies the entire floor area of the Palacio de Cristal and creates the illusion of a pavement of dressed marble with puddles of trapped water.

The participation of the public is vital: visitors intervene in the “sculpture” as they walk barefoot on the marble surface and step in the pools formed by the water. The work is also influenced by changes in light and room temperature within the Palacio de Cristal, produced by the reflection of light on the water and by its evaporation.

Changing and interactive, Bellotti’s installation transcends the closed artwork to convert it into a traversable landscape.