Bosco Sodi: Muro: Washington Square Park, Garibaldi Plaza

Paul Kasmin Gallery is pleased to present Bosco Sodi’s Muro, the artist’s first public installation in New York at Washington Square Park, Garibaldi Plaza. Muro is a 2-meter high by 8-meter long wall, constructed with 1,600 unique clay timbers that Sodi fired by hand at his studio in Oaxaca, México, with the help of local craftsman. Muro will be erected in the early morning on September 7th for one day, at the end of which visitors are invited to remove one timber, each one sealed by the artist with his signature, to take home with them. At the conclusion of the piece, Muro will endure as a communally co-owned work of art. The project expands upon Sodi’s ongoing interest in organic processes beyond the artist’s control. The impermanent nature of Muro further underscores the sentiment that all obstacles have the potential to be dismantled through united forces.

Throughout the duration of the piece, Muro invokes diverse metaphors that become activated by the public as they collectively disassemble the wall. In doing so, Sodi’s Muro subverts the primary function of a wall as a device of separation by empowering the community remove this physical barrier and its inherent symbolism. This effect is heightened as the day progresses and as more of the physical obstruction becomes displaced. The evolution of the sculpture is thus inextricably linked to civic participation, so that the shared response and action of individuals become implicit subjects of Sodi’s work.