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Artworks
Installation View The Weight of Memory, NILS STÆRK, 2025. Photo: Malle Madsen
Darío Escobar
Kukulkan II, 2009Vulcanized rubber and steelDimensions variableThis piece is constructed from 1000 bicycle tires, which have been cut and joined with screws to form 300 modules of varying sizes. It occupies an area of approximately 150–200...This piece is constructed from 1000 bicycle tires, which have been cut and joined with screws to form 300 modules of varying sizes. It occupies an area of approximately 150–200 square meters and was first installed in the Artiglerie dell’Arsenale within the Latin America Pavilion (IILA) at the 53rd International Exhibition of Art, Venice Biennale 2009.
The work draws inspiration from the pre-Hispanic myth of the feathered serpent, Quetzalcoatl, known as Kukulkan in Mayan languages. Designed as a penetrable sculpture, it invites the public to explore both its interior and exterior.
As a sculpture, the piece embodies a liquid structure, adapting to the shape of the space that contains it. Escobar's interest lies in rethinking contemporary sculpture as less rigid and static than traditional forms. I am particularly drawn to industrial objects and their embedded memories. In this work, the tires are cut and joined in a sculptural process. Although they are transformed, the tires retain their identity, reasserting their presence and contracting in space to create a dynamic, fluid structure.Exhibitions
2025: The Weight of Memory, NILS STÆRK, Copenhagen, DK
2010: Side and Back, Kamel Mennour Galerie, Paris, FR
2009: Mundus Novus/New Worlds: Contemporary Art of Latin America, 53rd Venice Biennale, Venice, IT