The latest works in Guadalajara city hall’s polemic public sculpture project were officially inaugurated this week.
They are “Biblioteca Vacía” by Jorge Méndez Blake, situated on Avenida México at the intersection with Calle Beethoven, and “Reminiscencia,” by Cuban sculptor Rafael San Juan, which stands on the Avenida Lazaro Cardenas suspension bridge over Lopez Mateos, next to the Hotel Riu.
“Biblioteca Vacía” set the city back 2.7 million pesos ($US143,650), while “Reminiscencia” cost 2.1 million pesos (US$111,728).
A ten-year resident of Guadalajara, the sculptor San Juan said his work is a “symbol for all women. It doesn’t exclude anyone … and it’s not just about their beauty, but their integrity and everything they have achieved throughout history.”
“Biblioteca Vacía” (Empty Library) combines Méndez Blake’s love of books and architecture and reflects on a modern world where the e-book is slowly replacing traditional tomes. The abstract work can be interpreted many ways, Méndez Blake says, including the transformation of libraries from simply being places focused on books, into community centers, where there are other activities as well as reading.
Eight of the ten sculptures in Guadalajara’s Arte Publico program have now been inaugurated. The final cost of the project, started in 2016 by former Mayor Enrique Alfaro (Jalisco’s governor-elect) is expected to exceed 40 million pesos.
Criticism of the project has centered on the high cost of the commissions, in addition to the furor raised by some Catholics regarding a statue that now sits on Avenida Federalismo that they consider sacrilegious. That piece, Ismael Vargas’ metallic creation “Sincretismo,” suggests a merging of an Aztec deity (Coatlicue) with a Catholic one (the Virgen de Guadalupe). Hard-line Catholics have staged numerous protests demanding the sculpture be removed, but to no avail.