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BUENOS AIRES – Marcelo Toledo usually creates sculptures and jewelry in metal. Now the Argentine artist is working with a new material: waste masks and syringes from the pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to create an exhibition that explores the painful impact of the virus.
Toledo, who has made jewelry for the musical To avoid on Broadway and unique pieces for Barack Obama and Madonna, he was among the first in Argentina to contract COVID-19 a year ago, which left him hospitalized for eight days with pneumonia.
The experience left a mark on his life and triggered a flurry of works of art, from a 14-meter mask with the Argentine flag that he placed on the iconic Obelisk of Buenos Aires to raise awareness about organ donation during the pandemic.
For his new exhibition, the After MuseumToledo is collecting recycled coronavirus waste sent by hospitals, laboratories, and random people. It includes old vaccines and medical parts, and newspaper clippings about the pandemic.
“I am excited to be able to transform pain into beauty and this exhibition is just that, capturing everything that is happening to us as a society,” Toledo, 45, told Reuters at his workshop in the San Telmo district of Buenos Aires. . .
The works of art, which will be exhibited from September in a public space in the center of Buenos Aires, will all be made with “disposable materials or garbage that people send me”, many of them sealed inside vacuum-packed bags.
“This is the first time that I do an exhibition where I don’t have to buy any of the elements,” he said. “It will all be enclosed or in capsules because we must never forget this. So the idea is that everything can be preserved over time. “
In the exhibition there will be a real ship that symbolically goes through a “storm” and recycling islands to raise awareness about the importance of caring for the environment.
“The exhibition will tell the story of this ship that went sailing and was stranded after the storm, which is a great metaphor for what is happening to us. This pandemic is a great global storm, ”said Toledo.
As with the giant mask, which was replicated in countries such as the United States and Japan, the artist dreams of reproducing the new exhibition in other cities around the world.
“The idea of this After Museum On the one hand, it is looking for elements from all over the world, and also being able to replicate it in other places and even get a physical museum to leave the work for posterity ”, he said. – Reuters
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