Dominio publico (The Commons)
Pinacoteca do Estado
São Paulo, Brazil
In the exhibition at Pinacoteca do Estado, Ramírez Jonas presents The Commons (2011), a life-sized, 10 1/2-ft. tall military horse, built of cork. Modeled after the iconic equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius at the Campidoglio in Rome, Ramírez Jonas' shifts the reference and form dramatically, transforming solid bronze to porous cork; historical specificity to open-ended narrative. The artist describes, “This is a monument, unusual in that it has no rider, unusual in that it implies the viewer. I use cork, because it is a material that can publish an endless number of voices, our voices. It opposes the singular voice of the State, or the singular identity of the ruler or hero normally portrayed on a horse, or the singular, immutable inscription on the public space that bronze and stone allow.”
