Bicentennial Torch

Guanajuato, Mexico

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Bicentennial Torch

Guanajuato, Mexico

Firm

Jesús Hernández + José Pareja

Type

Cultural › Pavilion Sculpture Memorial

YEAR

2010

The Bicentennial Torch is a Mexican National Monument inspired by a mural done by Mexican painter Jose Clemente Orozco, showing the social struggle of Mexican independence in which the leader of the independence, Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, leads the insurrection by tightly grasping a flaming torch.

The resulting structure is a 45-meter high element emphasizing the main entrance to León City, State of Guanajuato, in México.

The monument consists of a 10 meter-high poured concrete volume, followed by a 35 meter-high steel structure made of one hundred rings (which represent one hundred scars left by the years since 1910, year of commemoration of Mexican social revolution). Those 100 rings are interspersed with one hundred voids creating two hundred void/ring scars in the structure, remembering the journey towards the bicentennial of Mexican independence in 2010.

The shadows projected on the rings produce optical negatives that makes the sculpture, at night, act as a great urban lamp, illuminating the environment through its presence.

A light path is drawn from the bottom of the monument to the top, linking land, object and sky creating a perpetual flame that stands for Mexican Independence and the future of its land projected to infinity.

The bicentennial torch is a tribute to the heroes who fought for independence and granted Mexican people a homeland, enlightening the ideals of freedom and sovereignty. The torch bursts from a base made of mud, stones and undergrowth and proceeds in a trajectory of man-made materials through toil and effort, making its way to the sky in an unending projection of the Mexican people’s desire for unity.