CIMAM celebrates the inauguration of the winning work of the third edition of the Azcuy Award
CIMAM celebrates the inauguration of the winning work of the third edition of the Azcuy Award, La montaña concreta, by Argentine artist Fabián Bercic (Buenos Aires, 1969), an abstract mural that takes the wall of the building's central alcove and transforms it into a climbing wall that, at 43 meters high, is the highest in Argentina, which was installed in the Donna Reggia building in Caballito neighborhood, in Buenos Aires city.
The Azcuy Foundation, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has been a Major Patron of CIMAM since 2022, and the Azcuy Prize is a transformative award that offers development opportunities to Argentine artists.
The award was launched in 2019 by Azcuy in alliance with the Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires and calls Argentine artists to submit unpublished artistic projects, specially conceived for the buildings of Azcuy's Donna series. In this way, it represents a milestone in the Argentine contemporary art world, inviting reflection and new forms of interaction between art, architecture, and society.
Throughout "La montaña concreta", a series of polyhedral figures stand out, citing paintings from the utopian movements of twentieth-century Rio de la Plata art, more specifically from the constructivist avant-garde of the 1940s. Bercic takes as a reference paintings by artists such as Raúl Lozza, Lidy Prati, Arden Quin, and Gyula Kosice, and converts their originally flat compositions into three-dimensional ones, creating the real possibility of being climbed.
"All the artworks pose a different challenge, both for us and for the artists. In this case, it is a work that has a monumental scale, installed outdoors, that must coexist with the residents of the building and have the necessary safety to be climbed. After several months of work, it is very exciting to see the finished artwork, and even more so, being climbed," said Sol Juárez, co-creator of the award.
The process of materializing this artwork was complex and challenging. Bercic worked closely with Azcuy, considering resistance, durability, and maintenance aspects. The artist made the figures in resin and fiberglass in his workshop, while the company's team of professionals was responsible for the painting, and a group of climbers was in charge of assembling them.
For her part, during the inauguration, Victoria Noorthoorn, Director of the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, stated that "it is an occasion to celebrate not only Fabián's artwork, which is the great piece of art to be celebrated today, but also this opportunity to support our cultural ecosystem, specifically our artists."
"In the Azcuy Award there is a feedback between the spatiality that we as architects propose and the creative gaze of the artist, which produces a virtuous circle where ideas emerge, overlap, and we achieve these results. We are proud to consolidate, in alliance with the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, a prize gaining enormous importance year after year" summarized Gerardo Azcuy, Founder and CEO of Azcuy.
The 2021 edition of the award, in which Bercic was the winner, received for more than 300 projects from individual and collective artists from all over the country. The jury was made up of Victoria Noorthoorn (Director of the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires), Claudia del Río (Argentine artist), Eduardo Basualdo (Argentine artist), Juan Canela (independent curator and critic from Mexico City), Alejandra Aguado (Head of Heritage at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires), Gerardo Azcuy (Founder and CEO of Azcuy) and Sol Juárez (Creative Project and Innovation Manager at Azcuy).
The call for the 5th edition of the Azcuy Award is currently opened for Argentine artists or foreigners with at least three years of residence in the country, to submit an unpublished project for the Donna Fiore residential building. This year, US$ 10,000 plus the costs of the project will be awarded to the winner and US$ 1,000 to the finalists.
Useful links:
Nota Celina Chatruc, La Nación:https://www.lanacion.com.ar/cultura/se-inauguro-una-montana-de-obras-de-arte-para-escalar-en-caballito-nid16062023/
Web Premio Azcuy > Edición 2021: https://premioazcuy.com/edicion-2021/
Other news related materials:
→ The Azcuy Foundation supports the Argentine artistic community (March 2023)
→ Read the welcome interview to Azcuy Foundation as new CIMAM Major Patrons (October 2022).