SUSANA BOTANA
I am Susana Botana, a Spanish stone sculptor based in Valencia, Spain. My work combines the creation of individual sculptural pieces and collaborations with other artists. I particularly enjoy the balance between the solitary creation of my sculptures in the studio and the collaborative projects I undertake with artists worldwide. This dialogue allows us to fully appreciate the creative process and remain open to new, shared artistic outcomes. My most recent collaborations have been with textile artist Margreet Hajee (Netherlands) and sound artist Edu Comelles (Spain).
My work emerges from the need to interact with matter. Through touch, I conceptualize, construct, and hollow out the material. My primary medium is stone, although I also use wood and natural fibers. Through the process of stone carving, I explore concepts such as the origins of the world, the passage of time, and ancient myths.
By listening to the essence of the material, I strive to suggest fragility and lightness within its resistant and heavy nature, reflecting the inherent ambiguity of existence. After hours of work, my mind empties and I reach a state of calm and liberation, where only the soul exists, which is fixed within the stone with each strike.
My work has been exhibited in national and international galleries and institutions, including the Aguafuerte Gallery in Mexico City, Materima in Italy, and Riyadh Art in Saudi Arabia. I have received several national awards, the most recent being the XXVII Pere Jou Sculpture Prize 2024 in Barcelona.
Currently, I am developing a large-format artwork project that aims to bring stone sculpture closer to the public space. Last February, I participated in the 6th Tuwaiq Sculpture Symposium in Saudi Arabia, one of the largest public art programs globally.
Markus Nitschke ‘s photograph of Susana Botana with her sculpture «Balance» created in Saudi Arabia in 2025.
Intimacy ∼ public space
Over time, the studio becomes the artist’s vital refuge, an irreplaceable space with a strong connection to the works begun, abandoned, or finished over the years.
In my experience, leaving the studio and working in public space has been one of the greatest transformative experiences I have had throughout my sculptural career.
Last summer, I had the opportunity to attend the Lo Mon Contemporáneo artistic residency in the Hecho Valley (spanish Pyrenees). For a month, I worked on a limestone sculpture in the heart of nature, near the stone quarry, surrounded by sculptures created during the first sculpture spanish symposiums held in Spain in the 70s and 80s, in what is now the Open-Air Sculpture Museum.
This opportunity to leave the studio (my refuge) and be exposed to questions, comments, or gazes from locals and curious visitors who stopped and asked, made me realize the importance of sculpture in public space. Decontextualizing sculpture when it leaves the art space and enters the urban environment transforms it into another living being that becomes part of a social fabric, generating connections with and around the work, enhancing people’s sensitivity.
Recently, in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), I also felt the importance of offering the viewer the opportunity to discover – at their own pace – the mysteries of my work.
I feel the responsibility to continue along this path of Public Art due to these two very relevant experiences in two such emblematic places: in Hecho, where the first sculpture symposiums in Spain took place in the 70s-80s, and in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) for having participated in the 6th Tuwaiq sculpture Symposium, one of the largest public art initiatives in the world.
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