From extraterrestrial landscapes to vegetal trompe-l'oeil at the Prado Museum: the incredible floral universe of Sara Uriarte

Sara Uriarte, founder of the Cordero Atelier studio, came to vegetables out of necessity.

As a trained interior designer, in her projects for events and photo shoots – she is a regular name on the agenda of fashion, art and design professionals – she missed a twist;

Maybe it was because, deep down, she wanted to do something more than decorate.

“I really like art and, especially, sculpture, especially as a spectator,” she admits.

“I wanted to incorporate it and I couldn't find anyone who could give me that service, so the plants have ended up being a raw material for sculpting.”

In 2022, her participation in the Córdoba Flora Festival consisted of transforming the Andalusian patio of the Viana Palace into an almost extraterrestrial landscape inspired by mycelium, the network of branches that connect the vegetal mantle of a landscape.

In November, his intervention on the monumental stairs of the Italian Consular Chancellery in Madrid, on the occasion of ICON's tenth anniversary, also summoned a strange and fascinating image: large floral volumes with irregular shapes, as if the staircase had suffered an invasion to halfway between a fairy tale and a science fiction story.

“I really like ephemeral projects,” explains Uriarte, who conceived this one out of non-conformity: he was not resigned to the fact that a one-night intervention had to imply a waste of resources and materials.

An explosion of hydrangeas on the stairs of the Italian Consular Chancellery in Madrid, a neoclassical mansion completed in 1914.Ángela Suárez

The staircase of the Santa Coloma Palace welcomed the guests of the 10th ICON Awards.Ángela Suárez

The artist managed to use the same flowers that decorated the Prado Museum thanks to an advanced conservation method.Ángela Suárez

The solution was to establish a link with his most media project to date, the Baroque Door of the Prado Museum, which he conceived together with the Casa Josephine design studio, and which during the summer and part of the fall converted the Goya door of the Madrid museum into a golden and vegetal trompe l'oeil of the Solomonic columns of the Baroque.

Well, those flowers are the same as these.

“We had to study a lot how to ensure, using the appropriate dyes, that the intervention lasted so long, so it seemed like a good idea to reuse the hydrangeas,” he points out.

“After six months outdoors, they were still fine.”

The artist has a predilection for gold and intermediate tones, close to pink or beige, with theatrical touches of orange or ruby.Ángela Suárez

“Color provides a lot of information;

“Of the places, I remember the color above all,” says the artist.Ángela Suárez

Colors are another hallmark: Uriarte has a predilection for gold and intermediate tones, close to pink or beige, with theatrical touches of orange or ruby.

“Color provides a lot of information;

Of the places, I remember above all the color,” he reflects.

“I always feel like daring to mix things that I find difficult at first, I like to push the limit with the use of color.

When I started there was a bum

wabi sabi

and I felt very out of step with the trend, but I did well to follow my instinct.”

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