A GIANT SPIDER IN LA BOCA

It’s not science fiction, it’s not an invasion from outer space; it’s just an original piece of work of contemporary art. A giant spider, 9 meters tall, 10 meters wide and weighing 48.400 lbs. stands still and alert in front of the Vuelta de Rocha, in the Proa Art Foundation in La Boca until next June 19th. Its name is “Maman” and it belongs to an exhibition by the French-American sculptor Louise Burgeois.

More than 30.000 people have already visited it since its appearance last March 19th. Among them, you can count the Literature Nobel Prize Mario Vargas Llosa and The Edge, U2 guitarist. The arrival of Maman is due to the exhibition “The return of the repressed”, and the location couldn’t be better: by the river, with the accurate background of the rusty iron of the Old Bridge framing this giant spider made of stainless steel, bronze and marble.



Adriana Rosenberg, director of Proa Foundation emphasizes: “It was predictable, in a city as Buenos Aires, full of people dedicated to psychoanalysis that a work like Maman (an icon of the relationship between psychoanalysis and art) was going to be successful”. The spider is accompanied, inside the building of the foundation, by 86 works of Burgeois including its first sculptures and emblematic installations.

A marvelous exhibition which has recently visited cities like Paris, Bilbao (Spain) and New York, and now can be enjoyed in the traditional Porteño neighborhood of La Boca. It’s a unique chance to take a picture along the most famous giant spider of contemporary art, by the old port of Buenos Aires, near Caminito and the Riachuelo (a south branch of the River Plate).