Atlantes is the new monumental installation by Mexican artist Bosco Sodi, presented by Galería Hilario Galguera, Blain | Southern, and Kasmin. Situated on the coast of Oaxaca, near Casa Wabi, in the largely uninhabited area near Puerto Escondido, Mexico, Atlantes is described as "the region's most ambitious land art project in recent years."
Taking just over two years to construct, the installation is composed of 64 clay cubes measuring 2 m x 2 m x 2 m; each composed of 1,600 clay bricks handmade by the artist and a team of local artisans in a traditional Oaxacan kiln near the site, totaling 102,000 clay bricks and weighing approximately 700 tons.
The arrangement of the pieces and the monumental scale form an experimental observatory that frames views of the Pacific and captures the golden light characteristic of this coastline, emphasizing the power of perspective and evoking a sense of reverence and awe in response to the ocean, desert, and mountains that frame the area.
Atlantes offers a sensory experience that connects visitors with the immediate environment, tracing the land's entropic nature and various environmental effects over longer periods of time through erosion, the inevitable growth of plant life between the bricks, and the shifting landscape.
Over time, it will leave behind the artistic idea of a sublime pre-industrial minimalism: pass gradually from art to archaeology, then to nature, and return dust to dust.
- Dakin Hart, curator of the Noguchi Museum, commented on the project.
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About Bosco Sodi:
Bosco Sodi (b. 1970, Mexico City) is known for his large-scale, richly textured, and vividly colored paintings. He has discovered an emotive power within the essential rawness of the materials he uses to execute his paintings. Focusing on the exploration of materials, the creative gesture, and the spiritual connection between the artist and his work, he seeks to transcend conceptual barriers. Sodi leaves many of his paintings untitled, intending to remove any predisposition or connection beyond the immediate existence of the work. The artwork itself becomes a memory and a symbolic relic of the artist’s dialogue with the raw material that brought the painting into being. Sodi's influences range from Art Informel, looking to artists like Antoni Tàpies and Jean Dubuffet, to master colorists like Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and the brilliant tones of his native heritage.
This article was written by Mónica Arellano. The translation is powered by AI.
