Felix Yáñez was born in a village called Quintanilla del Agua (Burgos) in 1960. He was a disciple of Fidel Izquierda craftsman and sculptor Ismael Ortega. At 18 he began to devote his passions: ceramic clay, sport and love of the countryside and native village.

Some of his sculptures are associated with the artistic movement known as Arte Povera, which in Italian means "poor art". It is a term coined due to the materials used, residues (iron, nails, fabric) or materials taken from nature, such as leaves, wood or stone.

He has won several major awards and prizes. He creates his works of art in his workshop in Quintanilla del Agua, where he also lives. Exhibits and sells at major markets throughout Spain.

 

Territory Artlanza

With more than 7,000 square meters is the largest sculptural building in the world created by one person. This building, made from recycled materials (remains of demolished buildings, landfill etc.) is the Castilian town in the Middle Ages. Inside, apart from the typical Castilian facades, we can see several museums such as the ethnographic, museum photographs and ceramics museum. Everything is at a scale of 1: 1st located in a village called Quintanilla del Agua near the city Lerma. Inauguration was held on 20 February 2006.

I was lucky and that work I was able to visit. It was an incredible experience for me, mainly because it managed to build only one person, and that's the beauty of it admirable. It's very hard to describe the feelings of such a place, it simply must visit. Most of all I liked here was a smaller courtyard with a pond and a small bridge over it, which was located a short distance from the entrance to the medieval village. Also surprised how all the houses were previously too small, which must certify in particular our tall guys who had to walk almost on their hands to ever be able to look inside. I think I can say with 100% certainty that we all loved it here and we were happy, not only because we had the opportunity to sing here.

 

Translated by: Rudolf Lang

 

A visit Museo Yáñez in Quintanilla del Agua

On Monday 2nd March, we visited the nearby village Quintanilla del Agua in the afternoon, where we saw the open-air museum, and than followed our first ever concert ahead the Spanish audience.

None of us knew what we will see behind the entrance gate to the museum, but we definitely didn‘t expect something so incredible. We were surprised by several things, such as the entire area of open air museum, which was not small at all, or how much time Mr. Yáñez devoted to build of open air museum. And yes, he built the whole open-air museum with his own hands and in his spare time. All his work should introduce the village and the lifestyle, which is typical for the inhabitants of the Burgos region. Houses that stands in the open air museum are often white and basic construction material is undoubtedly the wood that connects houses with nature. We could look into the houses where we saw various crafts.

            After a tour of the entire area of open air museum, we went to a small court, which was situated in the middle of houses in the open air museum where were played theater performances in the past. Then we started to prepare for the concert and other musical and dance numbers. Our concert, which lasted an hour and a half moderate  Lucie Hrdličková and Kristýna  Dvořáková, who were in Lerma on a three-month stay in the framework of the project Erasmus+.

We started the concert with solo performances on piano, violin, guitar, violoncello and clarinet and a parade of dances and dresses which are typical for our region. At the very end of our concert alight a  choir. In the audience, which consisted of almost 80 viewers came as support  not only the people of the village and neighborhood, who were informed about the concert thanks a poster, designed by one of our singers Dominika Krásenská, but also our Spanish friends with families. It seemed that they really liked our performance because they  applauded to us in standing. At the very end we sang a couple of songs, listened very positive reactions about the concert, tasted really delicious almonds in sugar, made some photos for memory and full of impressions from the quite original visit headed back to Lerma.

            To conclude can I just say, that I wasn’t sure before the concert if everything will be all right, but with every additional song, I was more confident thanks to kind and amiable faces of the audience who were upon us laughing.

 

Translated by: Adéla Kulhánková