Biennial of Chaco - Resistencia, the City of the Sculptures

<body bgcolor="white" text="black"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="20"> <tr> <td colspan="3"><img src="../imagenes/ingl/BARRA5p1.gif" border="0" width="640" height="58" usemap="#BARRA4a"><map name="BARRA4a"><area href="42.html" coords="283,38,333,55" shape="rect" alt="El Libro"></map></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="140" rowspan="5" valign="top"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="139"> <tr> <td rowspan="6"><img height="378" width="30" src="../imagenes/DIRfija.jpg"></td> <td><a href="mailto:urunday@bienaldelchaco.com"><img height="25" width="107" src="../imagenes/ingl/contacte.jpg" border="0" alt="Contacto"></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="03.html"><img height="55" width="107" src="../imagenes/ingl/COLa.jpg" border="0" alt="Concurso On Line"></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="10.html"><img height="100" width="107" src="../imagenes/ingl/BIEa.jpg" border="0" alt="Bienal 2002"></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="20.html"><img height="43" width="107" src="../imagenes/ingl/FUa.jpg" border="0" alt="Fundacion Urunday"></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="30.html"><img height="100" width="107" src="../imagenes/ingl/CONa.jpg" border="0" alt="Concursos"></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="40.html"><img height="55" width="107" src="../imagenes/ingl/RESp.jpg" border="0" alt="Resistencia"></a></td> </tr> </table> </td> <td valign="top" colspan="2"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" color="#46585e"><b>Historical Review</b></font></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="350" rowspan="4" valign="top"><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">The city of Resistance was funded in 1878, since then, the change and mobility have been permanent signs in their life. However, the necessity and desire to be anchoring roots become evident and constant in each one of its inhabitants. In this kind of contradiction, were appearing its first urban landmarks, fragments of centennial trees, wood sculptures as evidence of a natural patrimony turned into a cultural one. These were the introduction of new marks which have in the end given to Resistencia the symbolic imagery which would define it as the city of the sculptures.<br> <br> The first urban monuments of Resistencia (1920) represented tokens of the immigrants heroic exploits and were raised up by the Italian comunity. Its joint with local history took shape just from 1945 with Argentine monuments dedicated to very important people, located in the main squares of the city.<br> <br> From the formation of a new seat of "El Fogón de los Arrieros", in 1954 a group of selfcongregated intellectuals transformed the place into a center of exhibition and artistic diffusion.<br> <br> In 1961, a Plan of Embellishment of Resistencia started and would constitute a new phase in the task of integrating art into the public space. The main idea was to create a "museum-town", something possible due to the superposed language of the sculptures already located in the city.<br> <br> The expansion of works meant the gradual change from a Historical valuation into a cultural one. This was achieved through a process that was giving the sculptures the true sense as urban refernces of each place.<br> <br> The Campaign was continued by COPROAR between 1977 and 1991, and then by the Urunday Foundation. This campaign got up to now the positioning of more than three hundred thirty (330) sculptures and formed already the particular image of the city. This image made possible to hierarchize the urban area, conferring on it touristic attractive and contributing to define a singular profile that qualify Resistencia's "culture".<br> <br> The remarkable task developed since then, equipped the city with works of great artists such as Luis Perlotti, Gonzalo Leguizamón Pondal, Lucio Fontana, Jose Fioravanti, Emilio Pettoruti, Raul Monsegur, I release Badíi, Juan Carlos Labourdette, Noemi Gerstein, Mimo Eidman, Tanya Preminger, Enio Iommi, Ted Carrasco, Mirko Basaldella, Fernando Arranz, Miguel Angel González Salazar, Ferruccio Polacco, Serge Gangolf, Jaak Soans, Thomas Kühnapfel, Mitko Dinev, Fabriciano and many others.<br> <br> The first sculptures privileged squares and central spaces of the main avenues of Resistencia. The Urunday Foundation descentralized the locations by means of opening them towards the access of the city and creating similar spaces like the Park of the Sculptures.<br> <br> Resistencia is today like a great Open Air Museum. A museum where there are more than three hundred sculptures in display. But, what is still more surprising is the high degree of concience, respect and pride its inhabitants show at possessing such an artistic wealth.<br> <br> Stone and marble, cement and iron, wood and assamblages, may be seen in avenues and squares, in parks and buildings, representing a grate variety of artistic conceptions .<br> <br> This course of action, that occurs almost naturally, allows that in this city and in the heart of each one of its inhabitants, the art is to be considered as another expression of the coexistence: the art as a mechanism of improvement and simultaneously as a means of spiritual elevation and joy.</font></td> <td valign="top"><img height="256" width="195" src="../imagenes/im39.jpg"></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><img height="214" width="194" src="../imagenes/im40.jpg"></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><img height="159" width="195" src="../imagenes/im41.jpg"></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><img height="305" width="195" src="../imagenes/im42.jpg"></td> </tr> </table> </body>