Puerta 1808

Puerta 1808 (Spanish for "Gateway") is an outdoor carbon steel sculpture by Manuel Felguérez installed in Mexico City, Mexico. It was inaugurated on 20 October 2007 by Marcelo Ebrard, the head of government, and was placed in the corner of Paseo de la Reforma and Avenida Juárez, in Cuauhtémoc. It is a 15 meters (49 feet) high sculpture that lies on a 2 meters (6 ft 7 in) high plinth.

Puerta 1808
The sculpture in 2007, with El Caballito in the background
Location
ArtistManuel Felguérez
Year2007
MediumCarbon steel
Dimensions17 m (56 ft)
LocationMexico City, Mexico
Coordinates19°26′07.6″N 99°8′56.5″W

The number in its name represents the year 1808 referencing the country's pre-independence events of 1810.[1] Despite its name, it is an abstract sculpture that is not a traditional gateway-shaped figure.[2] Felguérez said it represents one symbolically as it is the starting point to the historic center of Mexico City. He also dedicated it to Francisco Primo de Verdad y Ramos, a New Spain lawyer imprisoned by the Spanish authorities for his independentist advocacy and who died in a prison in 1808.[3] Puerta 1808 was created specifically for the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the country's independence.[4] The work was complemented with the Fuente de la República placed a few meters away.[5]

Álvaro Medina, from the Durban Segnini Gallery, described the sculpture as a "structure composed of a pair of triangles, the trunk of a cone divided vertically, a pair of cantilevered arched beams, a tubular linear beam and a few tensors".[6]: 10 

Later in his life, Felguérez said about Puerta 1808: "It is a living sculpture: it changes its look in every demonstration; it is colored with the slogans of the nonconformists in turn. And this, far from bothering me or being a grievance for the sculpture, gives it dynamism and validity that will only be exhausted when we live in a fair country and when all social demands have been satisfied. That is to say, never".[2]

References
  1. "Declara Manuel Felguérez a Puerta 1808 una entrada al Centro Histórico" [Manuel Felguérez declares Puerta 1808 an entrance to the Historic Center]. La Jornada (in Spanish). 21 November 2007. Archived from the original on 23 November 2018. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  2. Cuéllar Moreno, José Manuel (12 June 2020). "Puertas y pasillos en la obra de Manuel Felguérez" [Gateways and corridors in the work of Manuel Felguérez]. Milenio (in Spanish). Mexico City. Archived from the original on 22 March 2021. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  3. "'Puerta 1808'". La Crónica de Hoy (in Spanish). 21 October 2007. Archived from the original on 23 November 2018. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  4. Tagle, Ana; Paz, Reyna; Cruz, Antimio; Herrera, Eleane (9 June 2020). "'Felguérez abrió muchas puertas y dimensiones'" [Felguérez opened many doors and dimensions']. La Crónica de Hoy (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 22 March 2022. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  5. MacMasters, Merry (13 December 2007). "Manuel Felguérez conceptualiza lo que llama 'la entrada al Centro Histórico'" [Manuel Felguérez conceptualizes what he calls 'the entrance to the Historic Center']. La Jornada (in Spanish). Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  6. "Manuel Felguérez Catalogue Durban Segnini Gallery". Durban Segnini Gallery. November 2016. Archived from the original on 22 March 2022. Retrieved 21 March 2022 – via Issuu.
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