Toledo stands above the fast flowing waters of the River Tagus. Its waters were drawn up by the first communities into their fountains, cisterns and baths, and so the settlement flourished.
In making Tres Aguas – A Project for Toledo, her most ambitious work to date, Cristina Iglesias drew from the cultural history of the city, its mingling and layering of Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities who lived alongside each other for centuries in the period known as "La Convivencia" or The Co-existence.
The three sculptural works that make up the project bring water to the fore; it courses through channels and travels back into the ground after animating the surfaces of the works so they come to resemble the overgrown bed of some ancient river. Visitors are taken on a journey through the city as they visit each work, from a mudéjar water tower to the city's main public space and then onto a hidden location within a convent, a place not normally open for visitors.
Conceived as a journey into the heart of the city, Iglesias' project aligns the hard materials of architecture and the fluidity of water to deliver a sequence of large-scale sculptural works that bring the river back into the body of this historic city.
Commissioned by Artangel and El Greco 2014. Sponsored by Acciona and Liberbank. Commissioned with the support of Artangel International Circle and the Tres Aguas Patrons Group. Presented in association with the Ayuntamiento de Toledo and the University of Castilla – La Mancha.
