Pyramid
2010Presented in Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Mexico City
March – May 2010
During the exhibition, the artist invited Ensamble Graffiti composed of Aerials, Sish, Ruetser, Overseas and Kze24 to take over the construction, giving way to a “before and after” that replicates the relationship of urban architecture with street art.
Pyramid is projected as a sculptural portrait of a country’s everyday urban life, a sort of self-contained reply to what is observed in the social sphere.
The artist takes up the architectural structure of the pyramid from the Classic Mesoamerican period and pays a tongue-in-cheek tribute to two building phenomena linked to our culture: The superposition and imposition of new buildings over previous structures, and the tradition of keeping dwellings in a state of perpetual construction.
By superimposing building elements and contemporary organizations associated with the lack of urban law and order, the work approaches the culture of self-protection as an issue of social and political immediacy. Each floor of the pyramid represents an era: from rock walls to jagged pieces of glass, barbed wire, electrified wire, surveillance cameras and electric lighting. Every level refers to a new stage in the struggle for citizens’ safety and an exponential need for protection. Lieberman uses these illusory mechanisms of popular civil protection to make a sharp comment on the way each new structure is imposed on the previous one with the false premise and barefaced pretense of security.
Giovanna Esposito