Los Nadadores

Los Nadadores stands on the Spanish coast as a line of eight flat swimmers cut from corten steel. The metal is already oxidised, and that rust skin is part of the design rather than decay. The silhouettes stay simple, yet together they read as a procession of bodies moving through water. Miguel Panadero Escala conceived the group as a tribute to an annual open-water crossing. The route runs from the old rock to the point along the bay.

The ensemble before you is a reconstruction finished in 2012 under the artist's own supervision. Every figure consists of two twelve-millimetre corten plates welded together, which gives each silhouette double thickness and a confident edge. Shot-blasting, oxidation accelerated with industrial hydrogen peroxide and a fixing oil produce the even patina. The rebuilt group weighs roughly 3,600 kilograms, and the signature Panadero 03 sits low on the work.

After dark the whole work changes character. A white-painted interior throws back the light of two eighteen-watt fluorescent lamps, and the hollow rusted shells glow as silhouettes. In the late sun, light plays across the patina, and the eight figures hold the rhythm of one long swim.