Without a Goliath lurking, the Florentine setting of Marco or the Medici in the power, the David of Miguel Angel -or, more strictly, a century twin XXI– unfolds enormous and majestic in northern Argentina.
In the public space, where art thrives in what is known as the ‘City of Sculptures’, it stands more than 5 meters high, identical to the marble original – in the Academy of Florence -, the Michelangelo’s David of Resistencia, capital of the province of Chaco.
With nearly 700 sculptures distributed in streets, parks, squares and other avenues, the city showed off its artbut I longed to enjoy, without having to cross the ocean, one of the works of art most iconic universals.
That of Resistencia “is a love story of the people with the sculpture that is more than 60 years old,” José Eidman, president of the Urunday Foundation, organizer of the International Biennial of Resistance Sculptures, told EFE, which promoted the laborious loan to install a David Chaco in the Centennial Dome of that city.
This love began with an initiative, that of the founders of the Fogón de los Arrieros, the most famous of the cultural spaces in Resistencia, who decades ago decided to install works of art on the streets to “beautify public spaces.”
This tradition is replicated today in the permanent contribution of works, which after the international biennials of sculpture open air, like the one that will be held from July 13 to 21, will become part of Resistencia’s heritage.
David’s own feat
“That dream that seemed a bit impossible began to take shape in 2020,” says Eidman.
A David own was the concern of the prestigious sculptor Chaco native Fabriciano Gómez (1944-2021), promoter of the first national competition of sculptures open air of the city and original member of the Urunday Foundation.
“Fabriciano dreamed that this city, recognized and respected in the world of art and culture, would have one of the works that he considered one of the most important in the world of art nestled in its public space,” he says.
Within the framework of the celebrations for the Centennial of the Independence of Argentina (1910), a first-cast copy (direct replica of the original) of the Davidwhich today is preserved in the Ernesto de la Cárcova Comparative Sculpture and Tracing Museum, in Buenos Aires.
“There was an enormous challenge ahead, to be able to make from that tracing, considered first-grade, a reproduction to bring to Resistencia,” he says.
The National University of the Arts, on which the museum depends, did not authorize the use of a traditional technique, since it involved applying materials and weight to the work. Therefore, the central challenge was to find a non-invasive technique.
The solution: “We did our research and found a fabulous team that handles high-precision three-dimensional technology.”
“The first thing we said is: ‘Yes!'”, says enthusiastically the sculptor Gisela Kraisman, who, together with Denise Di Federico, completed the work: “We knew we could do it, but we had not done it. We believed it was possible , but the opportunity had to come.”
After obtaining the permits, the high-definition digital scan was carried out, after which the molds were made: “This is how the digital twin of the David of Miguel Angeland from that twin we were able to take the molds (…) the next step was to print it,” details the artist.
“We made a traditional casting inside the molds 3D printed“, he comments on that step in which they used nautical resins, fibers and calcium carbonate, “materials that harden and look like a stone, but weigh three times less and resist the elements.”
Then there were 158 tacels (fragments of the replica) that had to be fitted onto a metal skeleton calculated by engineers from the National University of the Northeast: “The making process took about five months, it was very intense; we dedicated our souls to it 24/7, our love and our body,” says Di Federico.
“You can’t do a job of this magnitude if someone doesn’t want it, if someone doesn’t want it very much, and this city wanted it very much. It’s incredible, they put determination and, above all, confidence into it. I would say that they are a little crazy… “That’s how you get there,” concludes Kraisman.
Julieta Barrera, Efe.
