Barcelona-born artist Jaume Plensa is among the 14 international artists which have transformed the iconic Rockefeller Center into an urban sculpture park as part of the Frieze Sculpture 2019. The building in the past has been a host of important like Jeff Koon’s 45-foot tall ballerina (recurring artists of RFC), brings a much bigger event together with the spring.
In partnership with Frieze New York and Tishman Speyer, Rockefeller Center will host Frieze Sculpture, a new collateral project of the art fair titled Frieze Sculpture 2019, that showcases twenty pieces spread throughout the outdoor plaza and inside select lobbies of the surrounding buildings.
On Fifth Avenue on the entrance of the Channel Gardens, the head of a little kid made in bronze white painted with 7.5 meters of high with the hands hading her eyes, instantly recognizable, her father, who named “Behind the Walls” is Jaume Plensa. With a mythical gesture of “I can’t look any more” the piece welcomes thousands of pedestrian who came to visit during the days the gardens.
Brett Littman, the director of the Garden Museum and curator of Frieze Sculpture, says that at the beginning he did not intend to place a sculpture in this location whit the intention of doing “something different”, but it the end it turned out to be the perfect place to it proved to be the perfect spot to put a statement piece that will draw people in.
“It’s kind of the way that I feel every morning,” says Frieze Sculpture curator Brett Littman. “You put your hands over your eyes and you go, ‘I can’t believe we’re going to have to deal with another day like this.’ ”
On the other hand, Jaume Plensa says, “It is a very direct piece. Many times we are blinding ourselves with our hands to be in a more comfortable position.” On a personal level, he hopes the sculpture will function like a “mirror”, in which “you can look inside and think about your opinions, your attitudes, what you are doing in your own life.”
Until the 28 of May, visitors can enjoy pieces of 14 international artists including, Goshka Macuga, Ibrahim Mahama, Joan Miró, Paulo Nazareth, Sarah Sze, and Hank Willis Thomas, among others.