A Gold Sea Lion

Covered in golden metallic layers, a giant sea lion –emblematic symbol of Mar del Plata- makes itself comfortable at the gates of Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (The Contemporary Art Museum). For the inauguration of that cultural space in which all the artistic expressions develop, this is more than a statue.

Ephemeral or perpetual art? This question may have a thousand answers if the artist who imagined this work and carried it out is Marta Minujín. Bestowed with endless versatility and creation, renown for her constant rebelliousness, she took her first steps in the 1960s in the City of Buenos Aires along with other avant-garde artists.

Ever since her first inauguration work, “La Menesunda”, at Instituto Di Tella, which paralyzed the capital of the country, until today, this creator has not ceased to exploit her imaginative and provocative potential. She suggested looking at art from a more sensorial point of view. Different kinds of actions and emotions would be experienced through several rooms in which it was impossible not to get involved.

Thus, she arrives in Mar del Plata in 2013 to cause an impact with a monumental work starting from two representative figures of the city: the sea lion and the typical alfajores from Mar del Plata par excellence.

The models for the first drafts were the stone masses located on the seaside promenade. Then she had to find a way to assemble a structure that was strong enough to hold the metal layers that would make up the “skin” of the sea lion, plus the alfajor wrappings on top of them.

Everything was finally materialized and the day came on which Minujín presided the act of disassembling the outer part of her work and hand out an alfajor wrapping to each attendant. This is how she shared her art. So far, the ephemeral.

But it did not end there. Later on, once the metallic cover of the sea lion was unveiled, the ten meters of height of this magnificent figure began to shine with its original golden hue. From that moment on, the perpetual art took over.

This popular, multifaceted and vertiginous artistic expression by Marta Minujín remained forever at that corner of the museum. As if she herself said: “Art heals, cures, saves and is eternal!”.