Reflecting On Works Of Art And Progress

Reflecting on works of art and progress

The work of art has an incarnate meaning, a thought that is expressed, in a nonverbal way, through each of the symbols that complement it. That is why it is necessary to see how it is organized. Do not be alone with how superficial it is presented, on the contrary you have to open the world that contains, all the peculiarities that complements it to transmit its meaning. Although to be better located and better understand the work you must have a notion of history to place the work and be able to understand it.

The work as its name indicates is one of the Pacific beaches of Guatemala City. It represents everyday life in that place although in a metaphorical way. Behind this scene of apparent tranquility, a critical vision of intrinsic aspects of Guatemaltec idiosyncrasy underlies. In this sense, possible meta-discourse are as varied as their interrelation is complex.

The presence of great powers and colonist powers in that territory formed entire generations with the latent desire to "be another", or at least to be "a little more" like the other. And that is one of the meanings contained in the work of art. By showing a wheelchair, it represents a group that has difficulty advancing, to move forward, to achieve its ideals and dreams that are presented as the sea horizon. A freedom to be and act that is very limited to be able to achieve it.

As a counterpoint, the Pacific that gives an account of something else is shown.

One hundred kilometers from the capital, people assimilated the presence of the other, made it part of their daily life until it absorb it and dilute it in the unfinished imaginary of an injured miscegenation. Unlike the capital city, where promises publications for the construction of a port proclaimI lived, "it was what it was" and already. On the southern coast of Guatemala, that world of networks and development is both a distant dream, as a bittersweet reality.

Pacific lighting represents the reality affected by progress;Half progress. The commitment to the progress of the Pacific is portrayed with a disturbing nostalgia. The remains of (false) development are mixed with the harsh reality of the coast and the certainly beautiful paradox of its landscape: precariousness of infrastructure, absence of services. In sum, a situation of material backwardness, which is forgotten and reappears every day in melancholic scenes of the town taking a bath in the waters that drag with any possibility of well -being.

Through that horizon that is reflected at the bottom of the sea, it manifests the promise of a perpetually postponed future. There has been no change. Only the promise of a development that never arrived.