On CONSTRUçÃO, LA RABONA By Miguel Andrade Valdez

Construção / La Rabona was conceived in Mexico City and builds upon my ongoing interest in the vernacular school of sculpture that is dispersed across many Latin American cities. I moved my studio to the actual exhibition space as a way to emphasize the work’s process-driven character, and in doing so, I conceived and made explicit the labor and materials that gave way to the three sculptural pieces that comprise an installation revolving around one single form: La Rabona monument. This was the name given to the women who accompanied the troops in military campaigns in the nineteenth century, who performed domestic tasks and offered material support. This character is now almost effaced from the country’s collective memory, and, like many other monuments of its kind, the one I selected for this project sits virtually abandoned in a Lima park.

On the other hand, the piece is also a reference to Chico Buarque’s song, titled Construção, at both a conceptual and formal level, given that although the three sculptures aren’t the same, they would produce the same result if the cement would be cast. In the same manner that Buarque’s song utilizes three paragraphs (as structures) that vary in their construction, but that through an act of musical and linguistic prowess involving the proparoxytone words ending each verse, still ends up telling the same story of one construction worker that meets his death during the course of his daily activities.

Credits: Galería Arroniz, Mexico City, Mexico