The Garrigós Wells Transform into a Mermaid Sanctuary

"As Kafka said: 'The most terrible thing to endure would be the silence of the sirens'." With this mention, Sómnica Bernabeu has unveiled to the world and the city of Alicante her latest creation, the exhibition 'Mermaid Songs', which will be on display at the Garrigós Wells until next September.

With the same bright eyes that these zoomorphic creatures display on the canvases and the same shade of blue that surrounds them, the Alicante artist - both excited and proud - has opened the door to the cisterns, to which she feels "connected".

She has confessed this with absolute sensibility, acknowledging this peculiarity both professionally and personally. For Bernabeu, the Garrigós Wells represent an allegory of the womb, as she has boldly revealed.

The cisterns have served to accumulate water, the source of life; and also to protect and shelter - as if it were a maternal womb - both the pirates of yesteryear and the civilian population during the bombings nearly 90 years ago.

Perhaps the most personal connection comes from her grandfather, who was born in one of the caves carved into the slopes of the Benacantil. "The umbilical cord is even more connected," she stated before presenting her mermaids.

There are seven canvases where these creatures appear. They do so in different forms and moments in history, but all of them fulfill the task of guarding the interior of the Garrigós Wells and expanding this "protective space and its magical atmosphere".

These characters also serve another dual educational function: offering a historical recap of this universal icon, the result of the "combination of water and woman", to break with the false myths and stereotypes that have fallen on both sirens and the female figure; and to educate on sustainability, nature, and the environment.

In the words of the artist herself, 'Mermaid Songs' "reinterprets ancient stories to discover in our common past the present day", both through the oils and the fifteen creatures she has sculpted in clay and that hang with hooks from the top of the second cistern.

The inauguration of the exhibition 'Mermaid Songs' took place on World Environment Day, which is commemorated every 5th of June. The paintings have been created 'adhoc' for the Alicante Water Museum, as part of its thematic cycle - and its programming with a strong female accent - dedicated to this event.

The Director of Communication of Aguas de Alicante, Martín Sanz, was the master of ceremonies at the presentation, highlighting the collaboration with Sómnica Bernabeu and the effort the artist has made in her workshop over the past year.

This is rewarded inside the Garrigós Wells, with this exhibition being the "longest-running" in this Alicante museum. With it, Aguas de Alicante contributes to the city's cultural agenda, thus energizing the daily life of citizens and tourists.

For its exhibition, the Water Museum has redistributed its current composition. The cisterns feature the city's first climate refuge, whose elements have been relocated in the various wells to admire Bernabeu's works.

Overall, the artist herself has thanked Aguas de Alicante for its commitment, "as an institution", to art, emphasizing the connection with the environment. "It is a statement of intent and a commitment to the citizenry," she remarked, emphasizing that art "nourishes and enriches the soul".

Furthermore, Sómnica Bernabeu has highlighted the annual call by Aguas de Alicante for such projects, which allows "democratizing culture, something so vital and necessary for the city", thus expressing her double gratitude "as an artist and from Alicante".