The works of art that the Mazatlán International Center has selected represent a cultural share that allows showing the inspiration of the local artists.
The Wall
Historic, Economic and Tourist Development of the Sea of Cortés
Author: Ernesto Ríos
Located in the north wall of the main building, this is a work of art that combines something that is unusually seen: removable sculpture-painting, ceramics, quarry and ironworks.
It’s composed of 105 removable concrete panels of 9 by 15 ft each that makes a total of 18,060 sq ft of sculpted and painted area, which makes it one of the largest walls in the world, with 80 ft high and 224 ft long.
The mythic Sea of Cortés, inhabited along the coast by fishermen even before the arrival of the missions in the 16th century, becomes more than a good reason to develop this wall. Fishing has been the most important economic activity in the region, added recently by tourism that is attracted by the ecological wealth of the area. It’s not a coincidence that the French explorer Jacques Cousteau, discoverer of the sea treasures of Earth, declared that the Sea of Cortés is the “Aquarium of the World”, which is mile by mile one of the most important places due to its geography, its beauty and its explosion of life.
The Wall is a heroic plastics that contributes to enrich the splendid cultural corridor of the Mexican Pacific - for both its theme and its size – and it’s extended through museums, galleries and a variety of sporting and art events; through Colima, Puerto Vallarta, Nayarit, Sinaloa, Sonora and the Baja.
With these wealthy and diverse elements, Ernesto Ríos has constituted an important work of art where you can enjoy the balance of shapes and colors in harmony with the brilliant morning sunshine and the intense evening shade caused by the layout of the building. Through this work of art, the author gets a series of exceptional images that contribute to the key and transcendent contemporary art.
The design of this work is always the one that demands monumental painting and the architecture of the building, which turns into new dimensions; and its images about history, culture, humanism, nature, geography and others become something of great multiplicity and movement; a striking visual contribution thanks to its technique and its meaning.
In this work, such as it occurs with others of this author, the landscape and history keep prevailing as points of reference, not only in a realistic or lyrical line, but also conceptual and abstract that lets the public in total freedom of interpretation. Even so, it´s important to ecologically stress that this work suggests the need to preserve the treasures of land, seas and coasts, forest and mountain, basins, rivers and deserts, atmospheres, sanctuaries of flora and wildlife. Bottom line, all echo systems that contribute to make human life possible on Earth.
Dr. Berta Taracena
Historian and Art Critic
Mural
Sinaloa in the 20th Century: The Fusion of Two Cultures
Author: Ernesto Ríos
Located inside the building, this work of art of 15 by 21 ft made in removable acrylic, expresses the relation between the old and the modern, based on layouts that are superimposed. The curved or vertical levels also result key elements, contributing to the dynamics of the story, as they reach the highest harmony and the highest expressive strength in order to apply the fundamental idea for the history of Mexico which is the fusion of two great races: the indigenous and the Hispanic, with the characteristic style of the author Ernesto Ríos: elemental, intense and expressive.
Muralist Ernesto Ríos prefers this type of plastic expression, not only because of the monumental meaning of its structure, but also because in through this option he finds a direct way to interpenetrate with the people of México, including its polyvalent identity in the global conception of today’s world.
Dr. Berta Taracena
Historian and Art Criticc
Marine Allegory
Author: Ricardo Becerra
The meaning of the allegory for the Mazatlán International Center relates on a sailfish that defines the aesthetics and the strength of the Sea of Cortés, amalgamated with a human shape that has characteristic aspects of the aboriginal of the Pacific coast, being part of the correctly known as “Bronze Race”, with an athletic torso, average height, nosed and short legs.
The man wears a simple costume, a loincloth, without a sophisticated confection, made of cotton; hold with a leather belt and an undecorated diadem around the forehead. He’s holding a baton on his left hand, a symbol of the pre-Columbian religious power. On the right hand he’s holding the Cross of the Christianity brought by the Spanish evangelists; elements that mean the union of the two cultures so fish and human shape together emerge from the ocean towards prosperity.
Offering The Marine Life
Author: Gustavo Samaniego
Ofrenda a la Vida Marina
Autor: Gustavo Samaniego Valenzuela
It’s a charter of the water life and life in general; a gratitude to Mother Nature for its creations; because the origin of organic life and its esthetic manipulations reside under water.
This work of art has an interior gap surrounded by a metal frame 55 inches deep.
The materials used to build it are marble, granite and white cement, with marble, quarry and stone finish.
Bonanza and Sand
Author: Gustavo Samaniego
It’s a work where the features of waves that drag sand to the beach may be easily observed. The hit and salty rock is part of an ecosystem where life abounds. The flora and wildlife of the Sea of Cortés records unforgettable pictures and memorable experiences in the minds of visitors; its prosperity and wealth is in man’s hands. This work of art is an invitation to preserve natural resources and make a reasonable use of them, so they don´t become extinct, and therefore bonanza and sand abound.
The sculpture was made with a mixture of marble, granite and white cement, finished in marble, quarry and stone styles. It has an interior gap surrounded by a metal frame 71 inches high and 47 inches deep.
Diversity and Encounter
Author: Ana Lilia Conde Saplén
This sculpture describes a group of four human stylized shapes, evoking diversity among people, considering that despite differences or individual conditions, all ideas can be put together to create and develop. The sculpture also makes reference to technological development over time, improvements human being has had, where youth is an important part of social, artistic and scientific development.
This sculpture is made of polyester resin with emphasis to marble, and enhanced with dipstick. The shapes are 71, 63, 55 and 47 inches high.
The Philosopher's Stone
Author: Rafael Beltrán Meza
The shape symbolizes knowledge, alluding to the compass rose with the union of four geometric shapes. It represents the four cardinal points on the main superior tiers: North, South, East and West. At the same time, the subsequent tiers contain the lateral directions: Norteast, Southeast, Southwest and Nortwest, as well as the eight collateral directions in the respective tiers, making reference to the international showing of Mazatlán.
The union of the four shapes of the group forms in its tiers a dynamic sequence of four M letter, that allude to Mazatlán, México in the world and its Sea of Cortés. The M letters in normal position symbolize the Sea of Cortés in its bottom gap, as the reverse M letters represent in its top gap the ocean currents that are the entrance of a diversity of species to the Sea of Cortés.