Javier Sandí Calvo investigates how nation-building projects were constructed in Latin America, specifically in Costa Rica. Questioning the myth of white supremacy and the idea of racial superiority, Calvo delves into how monuments were captured as a strategy to establish an official narrative by the states. Through performative actions, which unfold at times in videos and photographs, the artist weaves, through visual rebellion, a crossing between conceptions of identity, cultural heritage, and institutional policies, pointing out how these factors permeate individual and collective bodies with the aim of generating a conformation in the face of the power discourses and discipline of the State.
Text by: Tiago Sant’ana, curator responsible for curatorial support in the Pivô Pesquisa Cycle III 2022.
The artist Javier Calvo, in his body of work, maintains a critical attitude characteristic of contemporary art, while also offering an alternative course of action against what is being criticized. This is extremely important because it allows for reflection on the impact of art on society and its transformative capacity. According to Badiou, “it is also a function of art to have a vision of the future. We don’t always have to announce the disaster, even though there may be reasons to do so. I believe, rather, that art should say that a disaster is possible, that it may be more than likely, but that we can avoid it. It also has to say that something in all of this depends on us, and that is what I call a promise.”
In that sense, Calvo’s proposal is precisely a promise, a promise of a future that is demanded in the present and that emerges from the past; unequal forms of power, unjust economies, racial, gender, and creed discrimination that have been embedded in our collective imagination through material inscriptions in public monuments. These monuments do not simply recall a glorious past that is still being lived today; they represent a vertical society of exclusion and power.
This demand is understood today when monuments are being toppled or intervened in response to triggering events, such as the death of George Floyd, or similar incidents related to racism, xenophobia, or colonialism. This has led to protests and the toppling of Christopher Columbus monuments in cities like Massachusetts, Minnesota, Florida, and Virginia. The explorer’s monument was also decapitated in Boston, and in Massachusetts, a statue of the Confederate States President, Jefferson Davis, was brought down. Replicas of these actions have taken place around the world, including Chile, Belgium, Mexico, and Costa Rica, among others.
The works in this proposal allow for the visualization of a monument that is not solely characterized by contemplation or imposing construction. Instead, it has the opportunity to become a space for citizen participation, a public amenity, a plaza for gathering, a playground, or a common place. In other words, this proposal is not just a critique but also a proposition at the same time.
“Estados” refers to the State as a political organization and to “estado” as the temporary situation of people or things, whose condition is subject to change. The proposal includes a series of drawings, models, and sculptures in plaster and concrete depicting imaginary monuments. The project appropriates the nature and forms of data visualization typically used in architectural projects to present a “new public monument” that commemorates a society based on horizontality and inclusion. These monuments become functional spaces for collective recreation, sports, public amenities, and more.
The linear drawings graphically represent the concept of monuments from different perspectives, some incorporating elements that stimulate imagination, such as a staircase leading into the earth or monuments with new uses like a public bench. These drawings do not present hyperboles but rather something plausible. The use of linear drawing references the design process, the idea, the sketch, the concept, but also the imagined.
