Socorro, 2007
Site-specific installation outside Church of Cristo del Socorro and Maritime Museum of Asturias, Luanco. Sign with aluminium edging, perspex, neon and fishing nets
Avelino Sala co-opts the plethora of meanings of the word Socorro (help in English) to construct a narrative running through an installation based on the specific and immediate interpretations of the word by the inhabitants of the coastal town of Luanco. It then gradually opens up to a wider and more nuanced slew of applications connecting with the crisis and transformation of the fishing industry, the no less topical restructuring of the neighbouring metallurgic giant, and the alteration taking place in all areas of life (tourism, the service sector or the real estate and construction boom).
For the artist, the necessary awareness in relation to the state of unrest and confusing hopelessness requires a return to roots, a recovery of the distinctive signs he finds in handmade and manufactured products to reflect the kind of collective spirituality whose original focus is the image of the Cristo del Socorro [Christ of Succour], the object of local devotion which fishermen from Luanco pray to for protection in the seafaring work. Local tradition believes in the concession of this grace in hard times.
The requested and granted succour is rendered through the traditional nets, models, the perennial light, calling attention to the abandonment and shipwreck of many of the signs that used to single out Luanco from other coastal towns in Asturias.
