This sculpture by Miguel Torga on a tree is irritating the writer’s daughter
The author’s face was embedded in the root of the tree that inspired one of his most famous poems.
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The Portuguese writer died in 1995.
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Adolfo Rocha Correia, better known as Miguel Torga, is one of the most influential Portuguese writers and poets of the 20th century and now has his face sculpted in São Martinho de Anta, in the municipality of Vila Real. “Torga e As Raízes” is the name of this work that aims to mark the anniversary of the birth of one of the most well-known authors from the Douro and that was celebrated this Wednesday, August 12th.
Óscar Rodrigues is the artist responsible for the sculpture and used a chainsaw to make the piece. “It makes a lot more sense to make this intervention on the black tree, a tree that he immortalized through his writing. The soul, the essence is in this ”, revealed the author to Agência Lusa, cited by the“ Observer ”. This work was done live in the central square of São Martinho de Anta and intends to honor the Portuguese writer.
On one side of the sculpture, Torga’s face can be seen, with its characteristic physical features, with a long nose and thin lips; on the other, there are the branches that intertwine and merge with the material. The tree in question was the protagonist of the poem “Negrilho” and it would have dried up in the year of Miguel Torga’s death, in 1995.
The president of the Parish Council of São Martinho de Anta and Paradela de Guiães, José Gonçalves, said that they tried to take advantage of the trunk of the blackout that had been placed in the original place, but “it was already rotten”. So they chose to use the root. At the end of the project, the wood will be treated and preserved.
Still, the sculpture has caused some controversy on social networks. There are people who praise the intervention and others who criticize it, with the argument that the famous root should have remained unchanged.
The writer’s daughter also criticized this option and confessed to being “desolate”. “The intervention in the blackrock root is a profanation of a beautiful centennial root, of a work of nature that should be exposed as it was, in a sober way, only protected from the weather by a glass with the engraved Torga poem”, said Clara Crabbé Rocha .
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