Third World
Sergio Castillo
Escultura giratoria de acero, 1972
Castillo's sculpture, winner of the 1997 National Art Prize, is characterized by using an abstract language, built through the assembly of cut, forged and welded pieces, and by the relationship it establishes with the space where it is installed.
The title of the sculpture, Third World, is related to the theme of UNCTAD III and the moment of social and technological progress that the country wanted to show the world at said summit.
This work was restored by the artist himself for its relocation to the GAM center.
original location
Sergio Castillo Mandiola
(Santiago, 1925 - 2010).
Sculptor
Chilean academic of the so-called Generation of the Fifty, National Prize for Plastic Arts 1997.
Castillo found by chance, in 1957, the technique that would define his work, when he exhibited in Italy together with his compatriots Ivo Bavorovic, Héctor Pino and Iván Vial. It was then that it occurred to him to use metal plates and pieces to make an abstract composition of geometric balances, which he joined together with welding in a bicycle workshop. From there he would use "mainly metal, eliminating all visual references and privileging research into abstract works."
He worked directly on the metal, which he rescued from various waste: through the use of blowtorches and welding, he joined the remains found into a new composition; As a finish for these structures, he preferred patinas, polishes and oxides.
Linked to constructivism, the aesthetics of its modules maintain a rough and elemental character, since the shape relies largely on the roughness of the materials used. His works, intended largely for public spaces, are based on formal investigations typical of sculpture: rhythm, tension, direction and dynamism, are principles of the visual organization that Castillo explores.
He also practiced figurativism in his smaller works, intended for closed spaces, preferring the female body, whose volume is worked with erotic characteristics, emphasizing with great emphasis the theme of human sexuality. He is also the author of the cast iron sculpture that is awarded in the Altazor Prize for National Arts and of the crucified Christ that presides over the altar of the chapel of the Colegio del Verbo Divino, in Santiago.