Carlos Pulido's Artwork

Why “Madre Urbe”?

This project constitutes a creative approach to the ecosystem
of Downtown Lima (Centro Histórico de Lima): it is an inquiry into its materiality
as well as into its psychological and social dimensions. As such, this is the
most recent development of a larger undertaking that began in 2002, with my
first individual exhibition: “No Mast Urbe” (“El Averno” Cultural Center,
2002). Through the years, this process has made me reflect on the following
issues:

1. URBAN
NOSTALGIA—The experience of living in Downtown Lima:

The Centro Histórico is a hyper populated area
during the day that suffers a radical transformation by night. Only those who cannot
go anywhere else remain there. They are the only ones who truly belong there.

2. MADRE URBE—The influence on the urban landscape
in the configuration of the psychology of those who live in Downtown Lima:

What does it mean for a downtown dweller to have grown
up without parks, without access to one of those soccer fields that every
neighborhood has? How does it affect us to be in an environment far removed
from natural life and deprived of clean air? How does it change us to be
surrounded by concrete walls, incessant noise, smog, chaos, violence, and
filth?

3. POSTCARDS—The
uses of urban cohabitation:

Downtown Lima is full of shocking images that have
become common and no longer surprise the passerby: A homeless woman beats her
2-year old brutally in Unión St. at rush hour. A 45-year old man urinates in
San Martín Square at noon, on Monday. People do not care; everyone keeps
walking…

My personal experience and my contact with these
images are the source of a process I call “síntesis plástica”: The models I
assemble using variants of the technique known as cartapesta give abstract notions a peculiar density; they embody
the forms and concepts I extrapolate from my environment. The pieces I created
as part of this project are hand-made paper sculptures that open a conceptual
space in which a number of urban tensions are evoked and re-enacted.

Material and Technique:

Approximately 95% of this installation is made of
old newspapers and magazines.

This project does not only resort to recycling as a
source of alternative art materials, but also appropriates the concept of
recycling at a visual and conceptual level: on the one hand, recycling affects
the outcome of my work by determining the shape of the pieces and by giving
them a peculiar texture; on the other hand, it adds a conceptual dimension to each
piece.
Lima is a city covered with refuse: it is assailed
by an excess of useless materials that are now accumulating in every corner, asphyxiating
the inhabitants. Among this waste, we can always find newspapers. Not only do these
newspapers pollute the streets, but they also bear the signs that deform our
city. The sensationalist headlines, images, and contents with which our journalists
fill the daily news (the pages that the news stands display and that later
accumulate in the street corners) reveal a fundamental chaos. They are the
token of a visual and conceptual superproduction of useless information that is
organized in a complex network of characters, signs, and cultural codes in which
we are immersed, often inadvertently. This project is thus an intimate exercise
of recycling. It is an attempt to extract meaning from the chaos and excess
that crowds the Madre Urbe.

Carlos Pulido's Artwork

lunes, 14 de mayo de 2012

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