Caracas' Ciudad Universitaria is one of Latin America's educational spaces with the greatest volume and highest quality of public-art masterworks that are part of the community's patrimony.
Among the 107 works comprising the collection Síntesis de las Artes Mayores are important items such as Victor Vasarely's Homage to Malevich, Jean Arp's Cloud Shepherd, and Oswaldo Vigas' Un Elemento-Personaje Vertical en Evolución Horizontal, located in the University President's building. The later artwork, already selected as part of a maintenance, cleaning and corrections plan by the Artwork Unit of the University's Preservation and Development Council, was the victim last June 19th of the vandalism and fire on a public-transportation bus.
Vigas' work, which only required preventative attention, became an urgent priority. The office is working to fund the 373,426.20 Bolívares required for its restoration, as the work is in danger of collapsing. Alumni of the university's School of Architecture have launched a social-media campaign to raise the necessary amount. Ileana Pita, one of the campaign's promoters, went to the admissions booth for the Ibero-American Art Fair, FIA, at Caracas' Tamanaco Intercontinental Hotel, where audience members made their contributions.
Fernando de Tovar, who for twelve years has worked on the restoration of works at UCV, says that work on the Vigas will start next week. In October, Ciudad Universitaria will be visited by a UNESCO delegation, which will help set up an artwork protection fund.
Copred has established an account at Banco Provincial, number 0108-0582-19-0100020365, for concerned persons to donate money towards the restoration of Vigas' mural. Deposits must be made to Universidad Central de Venezuela, RIF: G-200000627, with the description "Mural Vigas". Once the deposit is made, personal information and voucher must be emailed to promocion.copred@gmail.com.