José Pareja + Jesús Hernández
Project Team: Abdiel Miranda / Isaí Padilla / Eduardo Muñoz / Claudia Pérez
The sculptural and architectural proposal consists in a 45-meter tall
element that emphasizes the hierarchy of the main entrance to the city
of León, Guanajuato, México.
The inspiration it’s drawn from the mural "Lucha social" (in English:
“Social struggle”), by Jose Clemente Orozco, which shows the leader of
the independence, Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, leading the
insurrection by tightly grasping a flaming torch.
The monument consists in a 10-meter tall concrete volume, followed by
a 35-meter steel structure made of one hundred rings, interspersed with
a hundred voids, which act as optical negatives as a result of the
shadow projected onto them.
By nightfall, the sculpture becomes a great urban lamp, which aims to
enlighten the surrounding environment through its body and scars.
Its body, marked by 200 scars, reveals on its skin its longevity,
giving life at night to a hundred rings of light, representing also the
centennial of the revolutionary movement and its importance in the
independent living of Mexico today.
The rings are crowned at 45 meters high with a cauldron from which a
powerful beam of light is projected to the infinity, a perpetual flame
symbolizing the independence and the nation's future.
The Bicentennial Torch is born as a tribute to the heroes who gave
Mexico a homeland, where the fire lights the brave in times of darkness
and injustice. It emerges from Mexican soil, illuminating the purest
ideals of freedom and sovereignty.
A light path drawn from the bottom to the top of the monument links
land and object, leading to the sky the perpetual flame of the Mexican
independence, projecting it to the infinite.
Structural Project: Lucio Lerma
Construction date: August 2010 – November 2010
Inauguration date: 20th of November 2010
Photographer: Daniel Pareja