Borondonaria

As part of its Chamber Cycle, the Auditorio de Tenerife presents Borondonaria. Between Mirage and Truth: Musical Chimeras from the 17^th and 18^th Centuries, interpreted by El Afecto Ilustrado.

Borondonaria

In 1570, the navigator Pedro Vello was forced to change the course of his ship during his approach to the Canarian archipelago to seek shelter from the pummelling winds. The storm drove Vello and his crew to an island, where they described abnormal phenomena of epic proportions and strange footsteps in the sand. This mythical place was the phantom island of ‘San Borondón’, also known as the Ethereal Island, Whale Island and Non Trubada (‘not found’ in Latin). The mariners had to flee from this place just as quickly as they had arrived. Vello, leaving some of his men behind to save the rest of the crew, watched as the island disappeared on the horizon. He went on to tell a tale of this experience that would be repeated over the centuries. Although a similar account had been told by Venetian and Portuguese sailors in the 14^th and 15^th centuries, respectively, the tale gained considerable traction in the wake of the conquest of the Canary Islands.

Although attempts to locate the island were sometimes unsuccessful, diverse expeditions in the 18^th century described it as the earthly paradise that the monk Brendan had sought and located in the Atlantic. It was said that, after exploring this wondrous island, he realized that it was moving and was sinking into the sea, and was forced to jump from his ship to save his life.

Nonetheless, the telling of this medieval legend took one of its most fabulous turns in the 19^th century. In 1862, the Scottish scientist and naturalist Edward Harvey sailed to the Canary Islands under the patronage of the Royal Society of London to study in detail the natural life of the archipelago, which led to his learning of the tales of sightings of the phantom island. Intrigued, his efforts to locate it came to fruition in January 1865. After leaving La Palma, a mighty storm threw his ship onto land. Not knowing where he was, Harvey described the island as a phantasmagorical place with unexplainable oddities, which he depicted in his personal diary with notes and drawings, in addition to photographing some of the more surreal locations he found there.

Like the voyage of the Scottish naturalist, Borondonaria is an expedition to the enticing land of the legend. An inspiration of Brendan, a tale of Vello, a photograph of Harvey. A whispered account of fantastic creatures, impossible natural phenomena, exotic harmonies and, above all, a world of illusion in which nothing is what it seems. It draws on the works of authors from diverse periods and locations but uses the common imagery and desire of the surreal, of the fantastic, of long-sought notions that fade away as soon as they are named. A space for the freedom of imagination amid a society forced to move in machine-like lockstep.

Borondonaria is a cage of chimaeras in which, fortuitously, the harder you look, the less you will find, not unlike the fabled adventure of San Borondón.

Adrián Linares