“Every summer, spontaneously, with hardly any will, and of course without any idea of a project, I made watercolour paintings as a good way of inhabiting the mountain” Saborit said. As a result of this “no idea”, there is now a compilation of 86 watercolour paintings by the curators of the exhibition, Lola Mascarell and Carlos Marzal, with an original ad fresh assembly to accompany us in a visual narration that also becomes a summer journey. The exhibition is completed with display cases and containers containing the artist's own material.

Lola Mascarell describes the showing as a “manifestation of the attention to the immediate natural environment as a form of affection to the proximity and a intimate respect to the land we inhabit. Other concepts implicit in the exhibition are contemplation, slowness, nature, habitat and environment”. Thus, visiting the Botanic Garden exhibition is also going for a walk through the Valencian summer, and at the same time, through our childhood, through those summers that are still alive and longed for. Carlos Marzal explains it with a delicate narrative: “Verano (Summer) by José Saborit is a condensation of all the summers, the ones from our childhood, our adolescence, the ones of our bewildered maturity, the summers that we have left to live”.

And how is it achieved? Going to the country, living it and paying a lot of attention. “In many ways the Calderona has been the university of José Saborit” sais Marzal, “a wise mountain, a mountain that is full of lessons for those who know how to ask and that are willing receive those lessons”. On the other hand, the painter said: “With the watercolour paintings I wanted to compose a kind of herbarium that gathers not only the shapes and colours of the plants, but also the attention moments, all that time dedicated to collects their shapes and colours that has been very valuable by itself”.

José Saborit is a painter and a writer, full university professor of Painting at the Universitat Politècnica de València and full member of the Real Academia de San Carlos of València. He has produced, among many others, the Cono el Aire exhibition (Centro de Carme, Generalitat Valenciana, 2018) and the Más al Sur exhibition (IVAM 2012). He also wrote essay books about painting such as Retórica de la pintura with Alberto Carrere, Cátedra, 2000, and poetry books like La misma savia (XXX UNICAJA Poetry Award, Pre-Textos 2016) y and the recently published Cono los ojos de nadie (Pre-Textos, 2021).

The exhibition curators are Lola Mascarell, journalist and teacher of Spanish and Literature, that has directed the Narrative Workshop of the Universitat Politècnica de València, and its the author of the poetry books Mecánica del prodigio (2010), Mientras la luz (2013, Emilio Prados International Award of Poetry and Alacalà Award of Poetry), and Un vaso de agua (2018), also just published her first novel in the Tusquets publishing house Nosotras ya no estaremos. With Carlos Marzal, graduated in Hispanic Philology of the Universitat de València, and has dedicated to poetry publishing numerous award-winning collections of poetry such as Metales pesados (2001), National Award of Critics and National of Literature 2002. His books are grouped in El corazón perplejo. Poesía reunida (1987-2004). He also is a prolific novelist and just published a combination of novel and essay, Nunca fuimos más felices (2021).

The exhibition can be visited at the Estufa Fría at the Botanical Garden until October 23 from Monday to Sunday from 10 h until the closure, that varies in function of the hours of light. The entrance is free paying the entrance to the Garden and the catalogue of the exhibition is available at the booking office.