This work was part of an exhibition that took place in what was one of the biggest foundries in Latin America once, before it went bankrupt in 1986. After the closure, the site became a public park, keeping many of its furnaces and other architecture.
My proposal was based on the underlying opposites –industry and leisure- contained in the history of the site. The work consisted in digging a series of holes in different shapes and sizes in a plot located at the outskirts of Monterrey (the initial idea was to dig in the park but I was not allowed to do so) to then smelt the tools used, such as picks and shovels. With that metal I got new tools made, stamps that were used to decorate the surface of each one of the holes with different patterns. The motifs of these stamps were taken from the context of the park and the city in general: leaves, tree bark, details of fruits and serpent-scale patterns. Once stamped, concrete was poured into each one of the holes.
The drawings that accompany the concrete sculptures are the caricatured documentation of the event. On one hand, the real place where the holes were dug is represented, but the situation is exaggerated with animals being captured, palms and trees cut down, and many people being required for the operation. The other drawing represents the foundry where the tools were smelted. We can recognize the workers carrying out their tasks together with a group of people in a lethargic state, probably the dawn of a big alcoholic feast, or maybe an orgy.
2 framed drawings, pencil on paper, 42 x 29.7 cm each
11 concrete pieces, different sizes
2016
Produced by Bienal Femsa for the exhibition Poéticas del decrecimiento ¿cómo vivir mejor con menos?
http://www.bienalfemsa.com/