Work by Arnaldo Coen revitalizes the walls of the National Monte de Piedad

The mural Mutual presence of eternal times, De Arnaldo Coen, was presented yesterday at the facilities of the National Monte de Piedad (NMP), at the Tezontle patio of Casa Open Monte. The financial institution commissioned the artist within the commemoration of its 250 anniversary, whose concept is Mexican helping Mexicans; It revolves around celebrating its legacy and tradition, where art is the means to tell its history.

For the formal delivery of the work of 16 meters by 10, painted to the acrylic on the wall, Coen (Mexico City, 1940) stood in front of the mural in what he called “The Blanquillo – by the white of the chair – of the accused. An explanation? I prefer that of others to me, because there are times in which I do not know what I do.

“I wanted to handle space, something that meant what enters and leaves the NMP. They are the leaks that go to the center, towards the infinity, towards us, and they exceed us.

The Babel Torre or the Axayácatl pyramid (Huey Tlatoani Mexica, successor of Moctezuma) appears. However, everything else is a game of forms that lead one to the present, to the past and to be in constant motionCoen said.

Interviewed after the presentation, he added: Ideas are born because they have to be born. I ignore why and how. I respect the connotation of the place, once moctezuma landand pointed out: Surely Axayácatl was present at the moment and told us that we had to be accomplices of what happened here historically and anthropologically. I feel part of anthropology for the old, although young for his presence.

Impacts the color of Mutual presence of eternal times: Colors always talk about temperatures. The warm colors, the cold and everything that happens in them is infinite, in the same way that I intend to be the mural. Like these leaks, which go to infinity and also return.

For the realization of the Coen mural he used a polychromatic palette; That is, a set of light and dark combined, with nuances, warm and cold, in order to generate a movement dynamic, which, in turn, allows the game with the plans.

Perhaps the biggest challenge that faced the execution of the work was the handling of space that, in reality, is two -dimensional. Explained: I tried that the viewer could penetrate space, enter and leave, an experience undertaken through abstract forms.

Added: Finding how to structure the space took me, as someone said today, to the Renaissance. Then, the new visions of the perspective led me to their knowledge. To do this, Paolo Uccello was one of my teachers. I wondered, how many leaks would fit in the mural? And I can say that as many as we want to see. It was a matter of achieving that future vision, although more in the present.

Coen is considered An artist who experiences many things at the same time. There is always evocation to my first works, or of the last ones, and those that I am projecting. I’m always in this game to be surprised.

In the mural there is a light point that refers to Axayácatl, who gave Hernán Cortés asylum. It has its history; However, I would not have liked to explain it because it would limit the work. I prefer that each spectator has a story what to tell that it evokes this.

The mural offers a geometric and chromatic burst that suggests displacements, leaks, tensions and balances. This converge the mastery of space, formal experimentation and a deeply philosophical vision of time: the past, the present and the future intertwined in a pictorial dimension.

The formal delivery of the mural had the assistance of good number of friends of Coen, as well as members of the cultural community. For the essayist and poet Adolfo Castañón, Coen He has painted the sky under which we are. The sky that somehow envelops us and floods us with air. According to the writer Alberto Ruy Sánchez, the work is Full of mischief. As in everything you do, there is something playful, to get the smile.

Architect Salvador López Negrete was overwhelming: This mural reflects that you came to the NMP to make a great effort.

The spaces of the financial institution are revitalized with Mutual presence of eternal times along with the 12 mural panels Mexicans helping Mexicans, of Chiapaneceo Érick Tsucumo, and of course, the stained glass window Celest version, made by Vicente Rojo in 2019.