COMPOSTELA AS A PALIMPSEST

Santiago de Compostela shows itself as an enigma. A maze of paths, roads and cattle routes of the continental network converged in a territory framed by the rivers Sar and Sarela. Around AD 1000, a persistent rumour on the discovery of the relics of the disciple of Christ circulated in this road network. For this reason, Compostela would end up becoming a goal, a yearning, a commitment; it became a pilgrimage. The cathedral and the city appear as a compendium of overlapped architectures in an imposing palimpsest, a synthesis of the history that must be figured out by us.

Santiago Catalán projects the view of an architect over this city and observes it, and then he wonders how each element was built. The author interprets a human-built object by overlapping architectures from different perspectives in order to set up a new story as of a knowingly reading of shafts, columns, entablatures, ornaments, and figures. Overlapped volumes are rigorously drawn ashlar by ashlar, texture by texture. The author’s capacity is in evidence in these drawings determinedly traced with a simple pencil and with mastery of architectural representation, the latter enriched with impossible colours and endless calligraphy. With his elaborate stroke, Compostela acquires space and volume, light and shadow.