EXHIBITION:090306/Marseille/Zocalo/Texts-Links-Images

EXHIBITION:090306/Marseille/Zocalo/Texts-Links-Images

Una Propuesta Escultorica para el Zocalo (A Sculptural Proposal for the Zocalo), 1999/2004
Pedro Lasch

For images go to:
http://www.duke.edu/~plasch/individual/unapropuesta.html
For technical information (medium, dimension, etc) go to:
http://pedrolasch.blogspot.com/2009/02/exhibition090306francemarseillepedrolas_15.html
For prices go to:
http://pedrolasch.blogspot.com/2009/02/exhibition090306francemarseillepedrolas.html

Adjacent to the Zocalo, Mexico's most important
public square, is the country's central Cathedral,
designated a world heritage site by UNESCO.
After being threatened for hundreds of years by
earthquakes and uneven sinking, an extensive
restoration begun in 1989 saved the building
from collapse. Throughout its nine year restoration,
a mammoth green scaffold buttressed the interior,
being readjusted every fifteen days along with the
Cathedral's warped foundation.

When the restoration was complete, Lasch realized
that the metal scaffold would be disassembled.
He teasingly proposed to Mexico City's Commission
of Art for Public Spaces (CAEP) that he reassemble
the 300-ton structure as a temporary exhibition on
the Zocalo, just as it had been in the cathedral.
The CAEP enthusiastically accepted the proposal
and recommended it to the government of Mexico
City. One year and numerous negotiations later
the project died due to lack of political initiative.

The installation created several years later follows
the evolution of a project that began with the
concept of an open square and an ephemeral
monument of absurd dimensions.