Mexico City – Visitors to Mexico City’s Chapultepec Park can now enjoy an art installation made up of eight giant insect sculptures.
The sculptures, which together form the installation “El lago de las típulas,” were erected in the Chapultepec botanical garden for the Chapultepec Forest Insect Festival, which took place between April 14 and 17, but will remain on permanent display.
The 2.5-meter-high bronze sculptures were made by well-known artist Amador Montes, a native of Oaxaca.
“They come from a story I did when I was a child in Oaxaca,” he told the Milenio newspaper.
Montes said he first dreamed of insects when he was seven years old, before turning the images he saw into drawings and paintings. He said his story featured “some mosquitoes that came after a day of rain.”
“[They were] large mosquitoes with very long legs. I later discovered that they are called típulas [commonly known as crane flies], but in my imagination they were mosquitoes that came to help a community that had gone through a storm that I created myself” said the artist.
Montes said that creating large-format sculptures of the insects he dreamed of as a child made him “very happy.”
“Mosquitoes are a very important part of me. I have painted many photos of these insects, they have been with me. I love their shape, they are very beautiful to draw, with their very long legs, they are very aesthetic,” he said.
The sculptures are based on “drawings and characters I created when I was little,” Montes added. “They stay with me and will be with me for a long time. The [sculptures] are like a part of me.”
In a separate interview with El Heraldo de México, the artist said that the sculptures turned out exactly as he planned and dreamed of.
Artworks in public spaces can “change the context” of their surroundings and “speak to people,” Montes said. “Also, [my installation] is an invitation to reflect on the environment,” he added.
Mexico City Environment Minister Marina Robles said at the opening of the public art exhibit that more than 20 million Mexicans and foreigners visit Chapultepec Park each year. “Having Amador’s work [here] is a privilege and one we accept with great affection,” she said.
Source: Daily Mexico with reports from Milenio and El Heraldo de México
