Floralis Generica Sculpture in Buenos Aires
Floralis Generica is a beautiful sculpture located in United Nations Park in Buenos Aires. This Park is right next to the Recoleta district (actually across the street from the Recoleta flea market on weekends). It is next to the Law School.
Floralis Generic is a giant, 23 meter sculpture made of steel and aluminum (its weight is 18 tons). The structure of the flower is made of steel and the shiny panels in the petals are made of aluminum. The sculpture moves, closing its petals at night and opening them during the day. It has some lighting for special ocassions too.
The sculptue is the work of Argentinian architect Eduardo Catalano, who also was a Professor Emeritus at MIT.
Here are some pictures of Floralis Generica. Note on the third one that there is a bus in the background, so can get an idea of the size. Also, I wasn't there in the park at night, but you can see a beautiful image of the sculpture at night here in art.com .
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Comments
The installation of that sculpture generated problems in Buenos Aires.
Many people said that the installation of it didn't cost 0,5 million dollars and also the protestant groups (aka “piqueteros”) were against of it because they wanted that the 0,5 million were destined in aid of poor people.
Posted by: Francisco | August 12, 2006 01:54 PM
Francisco,
What was that year (of the install)? It seems to me that the sculpture does add a lot of tourism dollars judging by how many people go there and visit.
Posted by: Ricardo | August 12, 2006 07:31 PM
The Floralis Generica was installed in April of 2002, and now i know (because of your question) that the flower is maintained by a private company.
If you want to know more of what happened with the flower between 2002 and 2006, I recommend you to use the web finder of one of the biggest newspapers in Argentine, called "La Nación".
Here is the link.
Posted by: Francisco | August 13, 2006 07:42 PM