The “wind toy” constructed by César Manrique at Arrieta’s roundabout has been renovated and replaced.
The large red cones of the sculpture, titled “Veleta” (Weathervane) rock and sway in the wind and are a familiar sight to locals as well as a surprising discovery for newcomers.
The sculpture was the first of the wind toys to be built on the island, and the only one that Manrique saw constructed before his death in 1991. The other wind toys dotted around the island were built according to plans and sketches he left behind.
The Cabildo’s Public Works councillor, Jacobo Medina, explained that €50,000 had been invested, in checking and correcting the counterweights of the cones and the wear on the bearings, as well as rust in the lower structure of the support.” The rods of the structure, which were initially the axles of a truck that had been left in a landfill, were also replaced by stainless steel.
The Cabildo now plans to renovate the wind toy at the Montaña Blanca roundabout and relocate the one at the airport dedicated to the visionary Cabildo President Pepín Ramírez, who invited Manrique to return to Lanzarote and transform the island in the 1960s.
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