LET THE LIGHT IN
HIDDEN IN THE RURAL COUNTRYSIDE NEAR JESÚS, ESPACIO MICUS WAS DESIGNED AND BUILT BY THE GERMAN MID-CENTURY ARTIST EDWARD MICUS, WHO LIVED IN IBIZA FROM 1972 UNTIL HIS DEATH IN 2000. FLOODED WITH NATURAL LIGHT, ITS VARIOUS LEVELS SHOWCASE MICUS’ OWN WORK, WHICH SPANS DRAWINGS, PAINTINGS, WOODWORK, LIGHT INSTALLATIONS AND MIXED MEDIA SCULPTURES, ALONGSIDE ROTATING EXHIBITIONS CURATED BY HIS DAUGHTER, KATJA. THE EVER-EVOLVING GALLERY IS A MANIFESTATION OF EDWARD AND KATJA’S VISION TO CREATE A SPACE OF PURITY, CREATIVITY AND CONTEMPLATION.
‘My father loved to build houses, he loved to draw, to paint, to create on every level. He never studied formally – he was simply an extraordinary natural artist. But creatives need to make money, and for many years he was a prolific newspaper designer in Germany. There are still some newspapers in the country that use his fonts and his layouts. In Germany my father had been part of an art collective with the painter Erwin Bechtold. Erwin had moved to San Carlos in 1958, and in 1968 he invited the whole art group to visit him in Ibiza. My parents fell in love with the island immediately. The light, the nature, the unpaved roads and the gentle and pure rhythm of life in the campo. It was a total departure from the German city life that they had been living. They began to visit Ibiza for holidays and a few years later they bought a house here – which was a total ruin in those days– and began to create the family home I still live in.
Ibiza in those early years was a very innocent and naïve place. All the artists worked together and supported each other – there was no competition at all, quite the opposite. We would all meet together in town or go to beaches or hike to Balàfia for a picnic. I remember that often the shops sold nothing but payes bread, olive oil, plum jam and cheese, so that was what we ate. My father began to build Espacio Micus in the early 1980s. He added to it bit by bit over many years. At first it was a place to showcase his own work but soon other artists wanted to exhibit there, too.
My father and I always had a very strong artistic bond. I have made things with my hands all my life – I sewed, I printed, I made silk scarves and did weaving and leatherwork and took photographs. For many years I made jewellery.
When you are raised as the child of an artist, creativity becomes your natural language. It is second nature. The only thing I never did was draw, because my parents were both so good at it that I didn’t feel confident. I felt a very deep sense of responsibility when my father chose me as the guardian of Espacio Micus. It has been an extraordinary journey to create and curate with all these wonderful artists over the years and I am incredibly proud of the legacy my father left on this island.’
