Motorists hot-footing it into Guadalajara from the Lake Chapala area, as well as from the city airport, had a double-take this week after an imposing new statue greeted them moments after they completed the long curve onto Avenida Lazaro Cardenas by the Tapatio Hotel.
What they saw in the central divider near the intersection with Calle Fuelle was a nine-meter-tall sculpture of a feminine figure clutching a suitcase, standing on a rearing horse.
This is “Abundancia” by artist Sergio Garval, the latest work to be unveiled in Guadalajara city hall’s polemic public sculpture project.
“Abundance” is the first of three Garval statues (the series is titled “The Three Graces”) that will be placed at 30-meter intervals along the divider. The next two, scheduled for unveiling in early 2018, are named “Harmony” and “Voluptuosity.” The sculptures all feature feminine figures that are described by the artist as “traveling muses.”
Addressing attendees at the inauguration, Guadalajara Mayor Enrique Alfaro referred to the pushback his artistic program has experienced from political rivals and ordinary citizens. “People have been debating about the artworks, not whether they’re good or not, but about their cost,” he said. “But today in Guadalajara this debate has ended.”
Since the mayor is the main cheerleader of this and other recent public works of art, he likely meant to infer that “Abundance’s” artistic merit is without question, and that it actually came in under budget at 10.6 million pesos ($US558,000).
Due north of “Abundancia,” the fourth work in the nine-sculpture project is being installed on Avenida Alcalde’s soon-to-open pedestrian precinct, a few blocks from the Metropolitan Cathedral in the centro historico. Called “Arbol Adentro” (the tree inside), it is also fashioned of bronze, by artist Carlos Fors, who doubles as a well-known rock musician.
The final touches to the work are being done in situ, although there is no date yet for the unveiling. “As Michelangelo said of the Sistine Chapel, it’ll be ready when it’s ready,” Fors said this week.
When completed, “Arbol Adentro” will consist of a massive golden-hued head – minus its cranium – with a tree sprouting from it. It will sit at the intersection of Avenida Alcalde and San Felipe and be the major focal point of the Andador Alcalde, the name given to this new pedestrian promenade that, when finished, will stretch from Calle Independencia to just shy of La Normal Glorieta.
An outcry erupted after the design details and the cost (4.5 million pesos or $US253,000) of Fors’ statue were released earlier this year. Fors had been a big backer of Alfaro in his mayoral campaign in 2015, and even created a musical theme for the Movimiento Ciudadano (MC) candidate. Accusations of “payback” were leveled at the mayor, although he vigorously denied them.
Since then, the controversy over “Arbol Adentro” has taken a back seat amid a row regarding another of the project’s sculptures, “Sincretismo,” which sits on Calzada Federalismo. Catholics have protested this work as sacrilegious and the work of the devil, since it blends the image of the revered Virgin of Guadalupe and an ancient Aztec deity.