The Strambotic Trilogy: Visual Manifesto.
I wanted to carry out an unprecedented project: to introduce strambotism to the world through a grand exhibition. Announce it. A proclaimed birth alongside another birth: that of strambotism along with that of Venus. A trilogy of colossal paintings. The first and most prominent, the icon, would be based on one of the works of the painters who fascinated me as a child: Botticelli.
“The Birth of Venus,” a static, rigid composition with exquisite drawing. Soft colors and mythological beings. A work that deeply impacted me. From the moment my grandmother, Miss Negre, deposited her teacher’s salary into the bank and, as a gift, received a book. Money for modest reproduction books, a cheap edition. A bank edition.
The dimensions, colossal. Eccentric properties for eccentric paintings. The first of the visual manifesto. And executed in oil, as it could not be otherwise. Oil… the queen of techniques. Erotic and sensual by nature, it knows no bounds. With it, everything is possible.
Transparency or impasto. Delicate, resistant. Figurative or abstract. Line, stain. Shaded or flat. Simple. Oil and pigments, linen, walnuts… lapis lazuli, earths, ochres, and oxides… Maximum simplicity to shape perfection. Intact for centuries, faithful to its creation. The frame, a single piece, and the canvas, too. No diptychs, no triptychs, no subterfuges. Genuine easel painting, wooden frame, and Egyptian linen, Belgian. 30 meters of fabric and 2 horizontal runs. Hammer and anvil. Thread and needle. 72 square meters. Wood and wicks. Iron and welding. And a ribot. They were unknown paths, there was no one. It was cold. 216 square meters to fit time, power, and freedom. And my dog. It didn’t seem like much, but it was everything to me. Hydraulic mechanisms, polyethylene pipes, 380 volts, and rotating motors with controlled inertia. Fall protection systems. All to avoid falling. And a space, a place to paint.
Then, I started to draw.
I needed a white paper and a few pencils. No… many pencils and many erasers.
Quim Hereu
Fragment from the eccentric manifesto.