Mural in water tower commissioned by Municipalidad de Las Heras, Santa Cruz.
Las Heras, located in the middle of the Patagonian steppe, is a town dedicated to the extraction of oil. It is very common for this activity that people come to work some time and then follow their course, turning LH into a cross of fugitive cultures: Salteñas, Santiagueñas, Formoseñas, Correntinas, Porteñas, Patagónicas, Chilenas, among many. Added to the hostile climate with winds of up to 120km/h, which causes many times people have to lock themselves in their houses, LH fights for their cultural development and the use of public spaces.
In this rare context I found myself painting, facing several challenges: wind drying all the paint instantly, which forced me to continually prepare the colors on my palette and restricted me from painting several days; the cylindrical format of the tower, deforming the image according to the rotation, but also allowing a spatial continuity according to the body’s path; the size, 4 floors at the base and 2 more floors at the top, having to use exclusively a crane to paint the mural; the design, how to intervene this space with all the cultural difficulties mentioned.
To this aspect we decided to portray fauna and flora of the region: animals such as the red fox, guanaco, eaglet; plants and flowers such as coirón, matas, margaritas, molle, chuquiraga. Applying on them the colors of the tremendous skies that bathe this place.
This work showed me innumerable teachings, many transcend the very image of the mural. Issues of a/v record, travel, logistics, friendships, research, body, fulfillment. In these senses it was a light towards a wider professional and personal conscience.
