In 2007 we inaugurated the first exhibition in the CASAdelDRAGON. Till the last moment we where working on construction. We finshed with a lot of help from friends and with the crew of David Sales – a local construction worker – the building of the gallery and we opened the exhibition in time. After 20 years we inaugurated the first exhibition “Amigos” with some artist friends of the region.

It looks like your mission is to challenge the people. You will not harvest the fruits but you place a lot of seeds.

Alison – artist and permaculture volunter

Nevertheless a lot of work in the house of the dragon was not finished. So we decided to review each year one room of the house. This will take us another 20 years after already 20 years of rebuildung the house. Some rooms where already used for years in the construction period, like the kitchen or the bathroom, some rooms where used but unfinished like the living room in the second floor. In winter 2019 we decided to spend time for the unfinished work of light installation in the staircases and some bedrooms and – as a big and long pending project – some plasterwork in the living room.

As part of this work we decided to place a snake in the open area of the staircase. First it was the idea to found a technical solution to cover a cable for a AC circuit / changeover but on the way it became a passionate art project – as ever.

First we placed some heavy duty dowels in the wall to support the weight of the snake. We calculated 300 to 400 kg including steal, mortar, plaster, glue and ceramics. Then we formed a structure with chicken wire and iron sticks. These iron is part of a donation of David Sales who helped us twelve years before to accomplish the mission of opening the gallery. Everything is linked to everything. Even the body of this snake is a remarkable quotation of the last 35 years of the house of the dragon and assembled with some historical construction material.

Later we used mortar to fill the wire and to give the animal a smart shape.

Because of the height in the staircase we had to prepare a working structure to reach all parts. So we separated the construction in two parts, the higher tail and the lower body of the snake with the head.

Overstanding material of the dowels was cutted and plaster gave a smarter shape. We started with a selection of ceramics from stock. This gave us the opportunity to use some old pieces we had as leftovers from the dragon and other sculptures. First we placed some leading colors – like the red – randomly over the skin to harmonize the later expression of the skin.

Working with mosaics is a very relaxing work. After two working sessions we finished the tail in the second floor.

In the first floor we focused the head of the snake. To shape the face we used carton and plaster.

To reduce the amount of material we used also old brick pieces.

After all we growted the tail with white cement and cleaned the ceramics several times. After one week we get a real impression of how it would look later.

The technical decision to use the body of a snake to cover a missing light cable was obvious. But by working on the sculpture we realised the message we recieved by placing this animal just in the staircase between 1st and 2nd floor. In many ancient mythologies the snake is a powerful symbol for fertility and a creative life force. Many of them shed their skins various times and therefor the snake became also a symbol of rebirth, immortality and medicine.

As all progress in construction in the house of the dragon it became an organic growing of an existing art intervention which took place in the same staircase several years ago. Sonia and Juan placed two shadows on the wall, one for each of them.

The rainbow snake of the Aborigines embodies the primordial state of nature in the state of the dreamtime and rules over her equaly life-giving and devouring aspects. So even the snake is leading up to our last guest from australia.

This is part one of the documentation of this artwork. We will continue to work on the project and we will post another part two lateron.