Street Sculpture Route I: 20. Die for 13

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Route · Subcategory: Street sculpture I · Year: 1973 · Authors: Remigio Mendiburu

This work was created in 1973 by the Basque artist Remigio Mendiburu (1931-1990) for the I International Street Sculpture Exhibition. Located in the heart of Garceda Sanabria park, this sculpture has something of a bunker, although its purpose is participation with the viewer, linking with the trends of penetrable sculptures of direct communication.

Die for 13 stands out for the solidity of its concrete walls that give it an appearance of robust regularity, as if it were a small temple. Inside, it features a disturbing labyrinthine path, with viewpoints to the outside configured by means of irregular perforations excavated in the external face of the material. The visitor who enters the work will be surrounded by high, dark walls with narrow twists. The sculpture, therefore, needs the presence of people, moving from being a visual object to a subject of experience. It is a pity that acts of vandalism inside led to the closure of the labyrinth entrances, thus losing its communication with the viewer and its important character as a habitable sculpture.

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