Place, Visibility and Perception: The materiality of Es Vedrà and its enfolding within New Age discourse and media-lore.

Abstract

The rocky island of Es Vedra, off the south-western tip of Ibiza, in Spain’s Balearic Islands, features prominently in tourism materials and in related social media postings. Its scenic aspects have prompted a physical orientation of shoreline buildings around its vista and it has also been the subject of accounts detailing its allegedly mysterious attributes. The latter derive, in part, from regional histories and folklore but more fundamentally relate to recent New Age/counter-cultural perceptions of the various “energies” that have been perceived to flow around parts of Ibiza and the enfolding of Es Vedra, in particular, within a set of generic associations of mystical spatiality. Following a discussion of the latter, this article identifies the development of the area around Es Vedra and the rocky island’s representation as a specially “charged” location. Drawing on these aspects, the article identifies the manner in which the rarely visited island is, simultaneously, highly visible and overlaid by cultural associations that effectively “cloud” its materiality. In view of these aspects, the island is characterised as a distinct entity within international secular traveller pilgrimage circuits.