Miguel Andrade Valdez on CONSTRUCÃO, LA BIBLIOTECA O EL UNIVERSO, 2018

For this project, I wanted to create a sculpture based on the formwork of a staircase section in the Universidad de Ingeniería yTecnología (UTEC), located in the city of Lima, Perú. The wooden mold is intended to generate an object that makes a direct reference to another object, while the sculpture delineates the space of the staircase section that was cut, but at a scale that gives the impression of having a practical use. At the same time, when the piece is placed on its side, it references some type of furniture, proposing a second scale for the spectator.

The piece itself is shaped like the section of a spiral staircase, alluding to the infinity symbol, and together with the title refers toJorge Luis Borges’ story, which acts as an inspiration and trigger for my staircase pieces: The Library of Babel. In this story, the author describes in great detail the architecture of a library that stretches like a fractal until infinity, making an analogy with the universe.

CONSTRUCÃO, LA BIBLIOTECA O EL UNIVERSO, 2018, belongs to the series of works called “Encofrados”, a series of sculptures that imatets the plywood forms used for casting concrete at construction sites. It has been made in two versions, including in 2021 for the exhibition La ciudad tomada, organized by Ayuntamiento de Las Palmas and cocurated by Octavio Zaya, Omar-Pascual Castillo et al. and installed at Plaza Santa Ana, Tenerife. It is a 1:1 scale of the formwork for a section of a spiral staircase alluding to the infinity sign.