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"Guido Heuer showed me
a model of the sculpture and I realised immediately that
The Valley was in need of something truly poetic. Artists
and architects are concerned with the creativity of the
system, whilst we engineers are responsible for the
technical side and the execution. It was therefore my
task to calculate the wind force and direction on the
sculpture so that it could be erected to represent a seed
of a new age. I accepted Guido's challenge and the
sculpture has now become a reality in
the Itajaí-Açu Valley.
EDVALDO ÂNGELO, Engineer and CEO of Metisa
The
signs of gravity are visible in lightness - that is the
fascination of steel floating or of roots fluttering;
that is the fascination of a shape that brings together
circles and barbs (or would that be the stem and its
flower ?). Standing proudly on the left bank of the
Itajaí-Açu River, Guido Heuer's magnetic sculpture
insinuates new directions whilst pointing towards north,
which is the common bearing of all compasses. Thirteen
metres tall and weighing fifteen tons, this composition
of pure steel will last, one estimates, for the next five
hundred years of Brazilian history: this is its place in
eternity -as from its inauguration on December 18, 1999
facing the Tamarindo Bridge.
The circle and the barb, together, are synonymous with
conception. According to C.G. Jung, the circle symbolises
perfection, evoking worship of the sun and with its
equivalent spiritual meaning (in the mandala) . The barb
alludes to the phallus and is also a symbol of creation.
Whilst being an emblem of the sun, however, Guido's work
germinates - in a masculine way - into the immense uterus
that is the valley; and procreates: there have been
innumerous accounts from artists and passers-by who see
in this work indicators of a new era coming to the city.
As if touched by the wind, it is curved and almost gives
the impression of being a floral specimen, even though it
is in fact the fruit of engineering and calculus.
Conceived as an obelisk in tones of orange and rust
(colours which are the hue of the fluidity of time), the
work was born out of the skill of the artist Guido Heuer
and the metalurgical craftsmanship of the engineer from
Metisa (in Timbó), Edvaldo Ângelo, the latter being
responsible for the precision mathematics that ensure it
stands. Having calculated the windforce on the body of
the sculpture and relocated its centre of gravity to the
base of the piece, the engineer signs his name alongside
the artist's for this remarkable piece of architecture
which, if viewed from certain angles, appears to
levitate, such is the levity which its sinuous shape
incorporates. Curves which are interrogation marks if
observed whilst moving, along the road or across the
bridge, or from behind the buildings, in the half-light
of dusk: amazing.
A direct descendant of the simple clear lines of
Modernism, Heuer's sculpture, which as yet is unnamed,
challenges the imagination of the city and brings back
questions about contemporary art. Not seldom referred to
as disconcerting, it is a source of controversy, since
many are only moved by what is figurative, by what bears
a likeness to reality. Guido Heuer's work does not have a
statement to make and for this reason does not impose or
limit interpretation. There are more questions than
answers as his work is the idea in a state of material
metamorphis: the effects of the weather (rain sun and
mist) inscribe on its body day by day new drawings, blots
on the rust that are testimony to the passing of the
seasons.
Lightness: that is one of the six proposals for the new
millennium put forward by the Cuban writer Ítalo
Calvino. Guido Heuer's unnamed sculpture is a fluctuating
reference point in the urban mesh of the city: it is
light, despite being made of steel, its composition is
almost airlike. Its resplendent shapes are born in the
artist's field of vision - and what is it thatwill not
exist on the ground still in the form of an embryo ?
Heuer's art is a breath of fresh air: its lightness
almost defies gravity.
DENNIS
RADÜNZ, writer in Blumenau
REVIEWS
Replica
of a Cactus - The eyes on your face remain fixed without
reflection when cast upon Guido Heuer's poem in metal,
whilst your mind's eye interprets the compacted algebraic
surrealism. The artist has manipulated the igneous rock
on top of a piece of common stone so often found in
market stalls. Guido Heuer's monument arrests the
attention of the passer-by saying: See me ! This
cactaceous replica and this solid ring is where the first
ray of the rising sun sips the morning dew.
THEOBALDO COSTA JAMUNDÁ Historian in Blumenau
American Modernity - I had been in Paris for some 10 days
when I visited La Defense, Paris' ultra-modern district.
Paris preserves with jealous pride its
turn-of-the-century and Belle Epoque architecture. Aside
from a few very rare modern buildings amidst the old
city, built with the explicit intention of contrasting
with the weight of the tradition of the past, to be in
Paris is to be part of the history of centuries past. So,
for ten days I had been living in the past, and then I
came upon La Defense.
Holy God ! This is what I really liked ! I, a modern
American, albeit a lover of history and enchanted by the
architecture of Paris, suddenly felt myself blossom upon
finding all the modernity of La Defense. My soul expanded
with happiness and I found myself breathing more deeply
whilst I wandered among the skyscrapers
and the brash works of art in that modern part of Paris.
It was the first time I had become aware of my modernity,
of my American taste, of my own continent that is so
young, where the old is viewed merely with curiosity -
something for historians. We Americans are like our land:
new and filled with the future.
On another occasion, some time later, I visited Fortaleza
in Brazil and once again found myself enchanted by the
brash works of art that abounded in the public squares of
the Ceará capital city. Fortaleza is a city in sync with
its era and with the continent to which it belongs. The
modernity of its works of art in every part also made my
soul expand and gave me that pleasurable taste of
modernity in my mouth, a stronger beat in my heart,
leaving me feeling at one with both my era and my
reality.
Now, back home in peaceful Blumenau, a city that is so
young yet has managed to preserve so much, still thinking
back, imagine my surprise to come face to face with Guido
Heuer's latest sculpture presented to the city. There it
is, in a privileged location close to the Tamarindo
Bridge, and it is so visible, so dynamic and modern that
to see it is like being thumped on the chest. Once more I
warmed inside, felt the pleasurable taste of modernity in
my mouth, melted with pleasure to know that our own
craftsmen are no longer thinking in terms of musty old
Europe, but have absorbed this modernity that is all ours
in our new America.
Thank you, Guido, for the emotion of your sculpture !
Thank you for being an American like me ! Thank you for
giving me this emotional experience.
URDA ALICE KLUEGER Academic Historian and Novelist in
Blumenau.
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