Argentina. Color and art are once again taking over the Abasto Cultural Neighborhood in Buenos Aires to share their transformative power. With the donation of 671 litres of paint, an area of 260 m2 has been intervened in a space that receives an average audience of 300,000 people annually.
Once again, Abasto Cultural Neighborhood becomes the setting for this collaboration, with the purpose of offering residents experiences that bring new meaning to their lives.
"The initial kick was the idea of making a box, because whenever I enter Konex I imagine a box where many things happen, in the evolution of the sketches the box became suitcases. Each suitcase represents different things, some open, others close," said Mabel Vicentef about her work.
"Stages begin and end. In the background the birds represent everything that comes and goes, my works always have a part inspired by nature. I try not to give so much meaning closed in advance to my creations because I think the contribution that the viewer makes by observing the work and giving it another meaning is very important, and generating their own stories according to the interpretation that each one wants to give it, which sometimes are much better than those that the artist thought," added Vicentef.
"From AkzoNobel, within the framework of our global program Come to Color, we bring to life with our colors a new mural by Mabel Vicentef de la Ciudad. And nothing less than in a reference space of the country's rich cultural activity, the Konex," said Fernando Domingues, general director of Decorative Paintings at AkzoNobel for the Southern Cone.
And she highlighted: "This mural is added to the more than 600 linear meters in the largest floor artwork in Buenos Aires, and the 1500 m2 of murals created by a collective of talented women artists in Abasto Barrio Cultural (program of the Ministry of Culture of the City of Buenos Aires), made with neighborhood collaboration and together with Alba Pinturas."
"We chose Mabel because her work challenges us whenever we see it, her walls are mostly inhabited by realistically painted women, with genuine looks and gestures, but we are also crossed by the worlds she creates full of fantasy, always with a strong presence of nature. Modern and ancestral touches can coexist in his murals," said Noel Yolis, Konex's Programming Manager.
The Konex building, built in the 1920s as a factory and oil depot, has been transformed into the Konex Cultural City, preserving its original architecture. Today, the complex is a meeting point for a wide variety of artistic expressions that enrich the community and attract more than 300,000 people each year.
Estudio Clorindo Testa y Asociados led the transformation of this former oil mill into a unique cultural space, maintaining the essence of its historic architecture.
