Heard on The StreetSeptember 17, 2021
Fernando Botero's "Scene with Horseman" mural is unveiled and moved to a new location
On August 15, the enormous task that was undertaken by the Museo de Antioquia and Comfama -to preserve, conserve, and contextualize and bring up a dialogue between art and the community- to transfer the work/mural "Escena con jinete" by Fernando Botero became a reality.
The fresco was painted between February and April 1960, after Fernando Botero won a call opened in 1959 by the Banco Central Hipotecario for its new headquarters on Colombia Street, a building designed by architect Nel Rodriguez, which in its projection had a second floor for commercial use. After the liquidation of the Banco Central Hipotecario in the early nineties, the building was acquired by the Caja de Compensación Comfenalco, which preserved the mural until 2014. At that time, the building changed and became a motorcycle parking lot and then a shopping center that operates to date.
"Scene with Horseman" of 2.55 x 9.07 meters is the artist's only mural painted in Colombia and is inspired by Antioquian tales and the painter's childhood. It presents a far from an innocent gaze by proposing a mysterious gesture "that some art scholars have compared to Pablo Picasso's Guernica," they comment in Comfama's press release. Given the changes in the use of the surrounding space (until a few weeks ago), the mural had been suffering a process of deterioration due to humidity and pollution.
With the interest of preserving this artistic heritage, five years ago, the Museo de Antioquia began this work, which in 2019 Comfama joined as the leading partner, the Ministry of Culture in the process by giving a measure of protection to the heritage, and Argos who joined in to contribute the fundamental elements for the civil work of transferring the work from the building (currently the Shopping Center) to the Museo de Antioquia, where the mural meets with 188 other works by Fernando Botero and, as María del Rosario Escobar, director of the Museum of Antioquia, says, "will have a long existence, now that it will be placed in the present and in conversation."
The transfer that could "mean only a few blocks for the work, but for all of us will commit our lives to the future and will allow us, at the same time, to review our past, to unveil and transform what heritage and art mean for Medellin and Antioquia," added Maria del Rosario Escobar. Jairo Mora, a restorer, was in charge, a disciple of the Mexican Rodolfo Vallin Magaña (1944-2020), remembered for taking on many other transfers in the world. In 1994 they moved the fresco "Simbiología de Barranquilla" by Alejandro Obregón, and in 2018 they oversaw the restoration of the murals by Pedro Nel Gómez at the Bloque M3 at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Medellín.
The extraction of this work began in May 2021, using the "stacco" technique that allows the total removal of the work. The first step was to clean the pictorial layer with neutral soap and then cover it with a cloth fixed with wax and resins that protect the work in the process. So that the work would not lose its rigidity, a grid of rods with wooden ties and supports was built, which was then filled with a mixture of plaster and expandable polystyrene (known as icopor). After protecting the plaster that supports the work, the work began on the back of the wall, removing the brick until a layer of four and a half centimeters was left. In August 2021, the mural was dismantled and moved on a low bed. To enter the museum, the mural had to be lifted into the air and enter from the back terrace of the institution to the room that previously exhibited the work "La cámara del amor" by Luis Caballero, which was moved to another space. During the following months, the mural will be in the process of restoring its color in what is known as chromatic reintegration and repairing the cracks and damages suffered during its transfer.
It is expected that the mural in its new space will be unveiled on November 29 when the 140th birthday of the Museo de Antioquia.
Video of the transfer process: https://youtu.be/pUGxe_uBxIc
The fresco was painted between February and April 1960, after Fernando Botero won a call opened in 1959 by the Banco Central Hipotecario for its new headquarters on Colombia Street, a building designed by architect Nel Rodriguez, which in its projection had a second floor for commercial use. After the liquidation of the Banco Central Hipotecario in the early nineties, the building was acquired by the Caja de Compensación Comfenalco, which preserved the mural until 2014. At that time, the building changed and became a motorcycle parking lot and then a shopping center that operates to date.
"Scene with Horseman" of 2.55 x 9.07 meters is the artist's only mural painted in Colombia and is inspired by Antioquian tales and the painter's childhood. It presents a far from an innocent gaze by proposing a mysterious gesture "that some art scholars have compared to Pablo Picasso's Guernica," they comment in Comfama's press release. Given the changes in the use of the surrounding space (until a few weeks ago), the mural had been suffering a process of deterioration due to humidity and pollution.
With the interest of preserving this artistic heritage, five years ago, the Museo de Antioquia began this work, which in 2019 Comfama joined as the leading partner, the Ministry of Culture in the process by giving a measure of protection to the heritage, and Argos who joined in to contribute the fundamental elements for the civil work of transferring the work from the building (currently the Shopping Center) to the Museo de Antioquia, where the mural meets with 188 other works by Fernando Botero and, as María del Rosario Escobar, director of the Museum of Antioquia, says, "will have a long existence, now that it will be placed in the present and in conversation."
The transfer that could "mean only a few blocks for the work, but for all of us will commit our lives to the future and will allow us, at the same time, to review our past, to unveil and transform what heritage and art mean for Medellin and Antioquia," added Maria del Rosario Escobar. Jairo Mora, a restorer, was in charge, a disciple of the Mexican Rodolfo Vallin Magaña (1944-2020), remembered for taking on many other transfers in the world. In 1994 they moved the fresco "Simbiología de Barranquilla" by Alejandro Obregón, and in 2018 they oversaw the restoration of the murals by Pedro Nel Gómez at the Bloque M3 at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Medellín.
The extraction of this work began in May 2021, using the "stacco" technique that allows the total removal of the work. The first step was to clean the pictorial layer with neutral soap and then cover it with a cloth fixed with wax and resins that protect the work in the process. So that the work would not lose its rigidity, a grid of rods with wooden ties and supports was built, which was then filled with a mixture of plaster and expandable polystyrene (known as icopor). After protecting the plaster that supports the work, the work began on the back of the wall, removing the brick until a layer of four and a half centimeters was left. In August 2021, the mural was dismantled and moved on a low bed. To enter the museum, the mural had to be lifted into the air and enter from the back terrace of the institution to the room that previously exhibited the work "La cámara del amor" by Luis Caballero, which was moved to another space. During the following months, the mural will be in the process of restoring its color in what is known as chromatic reintegration and repairing the cracks and damages suffered during its transfer.
It is expected that the mural in its new space will be unveiled on November 29 when the 140th birthday of the Museo de Antioquia.
Video of the transfer process: https://youtu.be/pUGxe_uBxIc
