Giant insect sculptures form exhibition at Chapultepec botanical gardens

Visitors to Mexico City’s Chapultepec park can now enjoy an art installation made up of eight giant insect sculptures.

The sculptures, which together form the “El lago de las típulas” (The Lake of the Crane Flies) installation, were erected in the Chapultepec botanical gardens for the Chapultepec Forest Insect Festival, which was held between April 14 and 17, but will remain on permanent display.

The 2.5-meter-high bronze sculptures were made by well known artist Amador Montes, a native of Oaxaca.

“They come from a short story I made when I was a kid in Oaxaca,” he told the newspaper Milenio.

Montes said that he first dreamed of the insects when he was seven, before turning the images he saw into drawings and paintings. He said his story featured “some mosquitoes that arrived after a day of rain.”

“[They were] big mosquitos with very long legs. Later I found out they’re called tipulas [commonly known as crane flies], but in my imagination they were mosquitoes that arrived to help a community that been been through a storm that I created myself,” the artist said.

Montes said that creating large-format sculptures of the insects he dreamed about in his childhood made him “very happy.”

“Mosquitoes are a very important part of me. I’ve painted many pictures of these insects, they’ve been with me. I love their form, they’re very beautiful to draw, with their very long legs, … they’re very aesthetic,” he said.

The sculptures are based on “drawings and characters I made when I was little,” Montes added. “They remain with me and they will be with me for a long time. … [The sculptures] are like a part of me … made in bronze.”

In a separate interview with El Heraldo de México, the artist said the sculptures turned out exactly as he planned and dreamed them.

Artworks in public spaces can “change the context” of their setting and “speak to people,” Montes said. “In addition, [my installation] is an invitation to reflect about the environment,” he said.

Mexico City Environment Minister Marina Robles said at the inauguration of the public art display that over 20 million Mexicans and foreigners visit Chapultepec park every year. “Having Amador’s work [here] is a privilege and we accept it with a lot of affection,” she said.

With reports from Milenio and El Heraldo de México