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| this image and the next six courtesy of Jo Farb Hernandez see Docementation |
Almuñécar is a Spanish city with some 27.000 inhabitants (2024), located along the Mediterranean sea, in the southwestern part of the coast of Granadina in the province of Granada.
This city was the hometown of José María Pérez Ruiz (1937-2025), also affectionately known as Pepe Pérez.
If you're wondering what the image of a ship has to do with where he lived.. .that ship was his home !
Life and works
Pepe Pérez' was conceived in 1937 when his father, who had a job as a barber, was on a short leave from military service during the Spanish Civil War.
At age twenty-two he joined the Merchant Marines, a choice that would have a major influence on the rest of his life.
In 1967, thirty years old, he married María del Carmen, who worked as a teacher, The couple would have two daughters and a son.
From his early years, Pérez was professionally connected with the shipping industry, a connection so strong indeed that it could be said that his heart lay in life at sea.
His favorite saying was, “My ship is my treasure, my god is freedom, my law is strength and the wind, my only homeland is the sea.”
Pérez's dream was to build a house in Almuñécar that would always remind him of his connection to the sea..
He succeeded in realizing that dream, because in early 1970, with the help of a cousin, he began building a house. It was a unique construction in the shape of a 75-meter-long ship, full of nautical details, located along a road to the nearby popular beach of San Cristóbal.
The building is filled with maritime items, which Pérez bought here and there in ports, for example, when he heard that a ship was being scrapped. He acquired portholes, masts, ropes...... in short, all sorts of ship parts and instruments.
The interior of the ship that Pérez Ruiz constructed includes what you'd expect in a typical house: rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and so on.
It's not visible from the street, but behind the building there is a terrace with a swimming pool and a vegetable garden.
José Maria Pérez Ruiz passed away on January 9, 2025.
Documentation
* This art enviroment has a review in the book: Jo Farb Hernandez, Singular Spaces II: From the Eccentric to the Extraordinary in Spanish Art Environments. Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2023
* Article (January 2025) in Spanish newspaper Ideal
* Article (January 2025) in Spanish newspaper ABC de Granada
Video
* Video (2009, YouTube, 4'10#') by Canalsur, an interview with Pérez Ruiz
José María Pérez Ruiz
La Casa-Barco España
Avenida del Mediterrano 34
Almuñécar, province of Granada, Spain
can be seen from the street
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