Marbella’s Artists get a new Competition Event

The great thing about living in a resort like Marbella is that there’s always something exiting happening in the neighbourhood. Unlike many resorts at the Spanish Costas, Marbella doesn’t roll up the boardwalks to go into hibernation when the tourist season is over. Quite the reverse. With a large resident expat population, Marbella and its neighbouring towns and villages make the most of their “quiet time” and stage cultural events that remind everyone, why it’s so great to own a home at the Costa del Sol.

Ronda’s alternative Art Scene

Creative residents and art lovers in the greater Marbella area will be delighted to learn that Ronda’s volunteer group of artists is to host a recycled art competition at the town’s first ever environmental and recycling event. The El dia Ronda Limpia event should attract considerable attention among Ronda’s and Marbella’s eco-friendly dwellers.

Ronda, an ancient town of cobbled streets and white-washed houses perched high above an impressive gorge, lies about 100km / 62 miles to the west of Malaga and is a much-visited tourist attraction.
 
The area surrounding Ronda was already inhabited by humans during the Neolithic Age and boasts some important rock paintings at Cueva de la Pileta. However, Ronda itself dates back to the 6th century, when early Celts came to settle there. Phoenicians and ancient Romans followed over the next few centuries, and fine examples of Roman architecture can still be seen in the town today. In fact, many houses were built with remnants of Roman dwellings – an early form of recycling one could argue.

Ronda’s recycled art competition is being organised by a volunteer group called Ronda Limpia; they encourage others to look through unwanted household items to see if things could be turned into art rather than simply be thrown away with the weekly rubbish.
 
Art works made from recycled materials will form part of an exhibition at the town’s first green festival to be held on Saturday, 17th May. The Town Hall backs the event. No doubt many artists and resident art lovers from Marbella will want to visit the exhibition on the day.
 
Artists of all ages and ability are welcome to enter the competition. There will be three categories:

utility pieces made from recycled materials

recycled art and sculptures

drawings inspired by a cleaner, eco-friendlier Ronda

The event takes place on World Recycling Day and its organisers aim to inspire everyone to get involved with environment projects and to think about how each individual can help to make Ronda a cleaner, better to place to live in. There will be a wide range of eco-friendly activities and entertainments throughout the day.

The venue itself is a fine example of “recycling”, for the Santo Domingo convent, which will host the art exhibition in one of its chapels, was an abandoned building that the world seemed to have forgotten for many years. Brought back to live in 2005, it has been a museum and focal point for art related events ever since. Some of the world’s finest art works have been shown here, including masterpieces by Picasso, Goya and Miro.

For more information about the event and how to enter the competition, budding artists should contact karethe@snobb.net or call 952 873 240 (x3), if a Spanish speaker.

Despite its reputation as a nightclubbing, fun-and-sun seeking town, Marbella also has a surprising number of art galleries and hosts many artistic events throughout the year. Contemporary artists like Peter Zimmermann, Fabrizio Corneli, Helmut Newton, Zhuang Hong Yi, Marco Grassi, Carles Azcòn, Romero Britto and Javier Martin exhibit their non-recycled artworks at the Gallery Houses of Art, which has long been a home for artists of international reputation.

Marbella’s Cero Arte Gallery in the Boulevard Alfonso de Hohenlohe, situated in Urbanización Marbella Real, is a stylish gallery particularly geared towards the discovery of new works by up-and-coming artists. No doubt representatives from Marbella’s artistic community will be keeping a keen eye out for emerging artists at Ronda’s green art event.

The Costa del Sol is a great place to live at any time of the year and for those keen to become an art collector or hoping to broaden their artistic horizons, Marbella is a good place to start.