Julio Pastor

Julio Pastor

Homage to 34 Dreams for a Monument

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As Mexico was getting ready to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the country's independence at the beginning of 2009, the government of the country and of Mexico City decided to commission 37 well known architects to submit proposals for a monument. Out of the 35 submitted projects, the one presented by César Pérez Becerril, and titled “Light Stella” was chosen. The monument is currently under construction and expected to be finished with a year of delay, in 2011.

“Homage to 34 Dreams for a Monument” is a series of art pieces through which I seek to honour the losing proposals for the monument. The different works that comprise this series, try to underline different polemical aspects of the contest and of the construction of the chosen project. At the same time, each piece represents a new proposal for this monument… proposals that will never be constructed and still give continuity to the work of the 34 architects who began to imagine a new country that we will not see in the future.

orden y progreso

Proposal no. 36: Order and Progress

ink on
cotton paper

52 x 36 cm

2010

Proposal no. 36 consists in building the “Light Stella” the same way as the architect César Pérez Becerril imagined it from the start, but with a small difference: it would include the motto of the dictator Porfirio Díaz: "Order and Progress". This way the similarities between this new monument and the “Angel of Independence” (which was built during Díaz´s dictatorship and unveiled in 1910) would become more apparent. The resemblance of the two monuments can be understood in terms of their purposes: built two commemorate the centennial and bicentennial of Mexico’s independence. But if we add to this, the correspondence in shape of both monuments (in terms of their verticality) and the closeness of their location (just two blocks away from each other, over the same avenue) we might think that the new project is built in order to compete for the attention that the Angel currently receives. The need to relate the new monument to the first could be understood if we consider the fact that Angel of Independence is the most important icon of the city and a place for popular gatherings such as the victories of the Mexican football team.

However, the controversy under which the first century of Mexican independent life was celebrated, makes me think that the relation between the two projects should be avoided rather than underlined by Pérez Becerril and the people in charge of the call for applications. The reason for this, is that there is also a resemblance on the country’s situation at the time that the monuments have been inaugurated: the first, a few months before the start of the Mexican revolution and the second at a time when neo-liberalism has also polarized the population into social and economic strata.

Pérez Becerril y Posada

Proposal no. 37: Pérez Becerril & Posada

ink, watercolour and pencil
on cotton paper

60 x 90 cm

2010

The architects Michel Rojkind, Arturo Ortiz and Alejandro Hernández Gálvez developed proposal number 18 for the monument. Through their project, they criticized the contest by presenting a structure that attempted to coordinate vehicular traffic, expand the green areas, and would have the shape of an arch (just as the call for application requested it). However the arch was to have 5000 social housing units and would take 20 years to be built at a cost of 200 million dollars.

My proposal number 37 tries to continue the work of these architects, who imagined a project that would take into consideration the social inequality of our country. This way the background of my sketch is based on a render of the winning project: “Light Stella” by César Pérez Becerril. However, I have added into this image a series of characters taken from the prints of the artist José Guadalupe Posada. This way I attempt to show how the social problems that Posada saw a hundred years ago, can still be seen in the streets of our country.

inauguración

Propposal no. 38: Unfinished Project

collage
on cotton paper

35 x 38 cm

2010

The call for applications for the monument specified that the construction of the chosen project should be finished for the Bicentennial celebrations in September 2010. However, by this time the only visible thing in the construction site was a temporary wall surrounding a couple of cranes.

The proposal number 38 consists on inaugurating the monument on September 16, regardless to its unfinished state.

proyecto integral

Proposal no. 39: Comprehensive Project

collage
on cotton paper

28.5 x 21.5 cm x4

2010

In 1910, when the Angel of Independence was unveiled, its height was not surpassed by any of the surrounding buildings. This way, its stature was not only significant in terms of the meaning it could acquire due to the leading philosophical school of the time (Positivism), but also because Mexico would not see a private building higher than this monument until 1932.

On the other hand, the apparently breathe-taking height of 104 meters that the “Light Stella” will have is already over passed by the “Torre Mayor” (which is located just in front of the new monument). More over, on 2011, the area of this new monument will witness the opening of two new skyscrapers: the “Torre Bancomer” (250 meters high), and the “Torre Reforma” (260 meters high).

For this reason, proposal number 39 consists of a comprehensive project for this area. A project where the height of the surrounding buildings constructed with private resources, will overshadow in a conscious way the “Light Stella”.