. The fifteen monumental bronze sculptures are located within the architectural complex designed by Santiago Calatrava. The statues are cleverly placed near the crystalline lakes of the Planetarium (Hèmisferic), the Opera House (Palau de las Artes), the northern part of the Río Turia, the Paseo del Arte, the western entrance to the Museum of Science (Museo Principe Felipe), and the Paso de Cipreses.
La Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias (the City of Arts and Sciences) in Valencia will host an exhibition by Polish artist Igor Mitoraj. The iconic architectural complex of the city represents one of the most important educational institutions in the European scientific and cultural field. The splendid monumental sculptures will be on view from April 7th to October 16th, 2022; the exhibition combines science, nature and art harmoniously.
The famous Polish sculptor draws his inspiration from the concept of 'crushed beauty'. His fragmented artworks echo the archaeological findings from the classical Greco-Roman period, revisited through post-modern traits. His statues reveal the inescapable passage of time that rages on ancient sculptures inexorably, leading them to deterioration. Mitoraj loved selecting various materials for his monumental sculptures, such as marble, bronze and terracotta. The strong emotional impact arises from the juxtaposition of the sculptures with the surrounding natural scenery, particularly when it comes to the Mediterranean landscapes that the artist adored.
International sculptor Igor Mitoraj condenses many aspects of the 20th-century avant-garde sculpture into his artworks (i.e. the base integrated into the sculpture, the torso as an essential unit rather than as a fragment, etc.). He also manages to use the inspiration from classical sculpture, derived from the Greco-Roman era and the Renaissance, integrating it with the contemporary architecture harmoniously. In the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, viewers can observe how classical and modern traditions are combined within the artist's work. Renowned worldwide for his titanic bronze and marble sculptures, Mitoraj denounces the neglect and abandonment suffered by the masterpieces of antiquity, through lying male busts male busts, incomplete heads and fragments of limbs.
All his artworks remind us of history and mythology. His mythological 'giants', heirs to classical art, can be found in the most varied locations in the world: from the Parisian district of La Défense to the bronze doors of the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome, where a splendid white marble Annunciation is held in the Vatican Museums.
His style originates from the classical tradition, but with a touch of philosophical and material deconstruction. The ends are deliberately truncated, evoking what, in classical works, is the result of multiple vicissitudes undergone in the past. Mitoraj does not glorify the cult of the body as a muscular, athletic definition for its own sake, but proposes an idealism linked to materiality and the passage of time.
