The Gallery at the Malecon of P. V.
Juan walks slowly and in awe on the Puerto Vallarta Malecon. It is his first time at this destiny and is surprised at seeing “so much art at the side of the ocean”. He counts the sculptures, examines them, he likes some and dislikes others. Of something he is sure, he prefers to dislike some of them rather than just find “statues of heroes that no one believes in” even if they are very well made. But not everyone thinks like John. Rosa Maria has been living in Puerto Vallarta for five years and she is indifferent to the sculptures at the Malecon. She jogs by them every morning with her dog, El Barbas. When asked which is her favorite she simply replies, “and if I tell you I never even paid attention to them, would you believe me?”. But while she works out, between sit ups, she admits, “Ok, yes, I have a favorite, the one with the strange chairs” she lets out. Rosa Maria likes The Rotunda of the Sea, which is more of an installation than a sculpture. In 1997 the Jalisco born artist, Alejandro Colunga placed this series of chairs composed of characters of his own mythology, one that he has recreated in different cities. Today the chairs look out at the ocean though that is not the original placement proposed by Colunga. Hurricane Kenna in 2002 swept them away and ironically took one back to Guadalajara and left three of the smallest in the home of Carlos Manzano, the ex director of Urban Development, which have still to be reinstalled. The actual placement of the sculptures is a mere whim of others, but still function as the author intended: as a way of demystifying art and bringing it closer to the people. “I like to sit here” says Rosa Maria. She sits on Colunga’s piece that has a long spyglass and octopus tentacles. Facing the horizon, as if looking through the fog for the long lost ship of the feared Sir Francis Drake, whom during the XVI century awaited the Manila Galleon in these Pacific waters or like the one manned by Thomas Cavendish whom around the same time, docked in this bay to strip the locals of the pearls and treasures they might find here. Rosa Maria pets her dog. He was known in the olden Vallarta days as El Pajarito (the little bird) and is one of the oldest inhabitants of the city; he misses the uninterrupted view of the ocean “they look like pure toffee candies” about the sculptures he used to say. But in fact it is one sculpture in particular that brings the memory of the twisted caramels that are sold at the market in Guadalajara; The Millenniums by Mathis Lídice.
The sculpture is structure that raises in a spiral towards the sky and tells the tale of the ascension, the history of humanity. It was the artist’s proposal to celebrate the beginning of the XXI century. El Pajarito never liked it, but is one more attraction for many of those who visit the Hotel Rosita, the oldest of the hotels still around in down town Vallarta. “Now that you mention it, it does look like toffee” says Rogelio who is visiting from Salamanca. “Maybe that is why I like it; I might just lick it” he says while taking a picture. The Millenniums is now part of the gallery on his computer. Art of toffee, the sculptures that inhabit the Puerto Vallarta malecon make it one of the most interesting open air galleries in the world. One can enjoy the gallery as Juan does, slowly walking the malecon, feeling the ocean breeze, with the sunset in the back ground and the lighting that offers a clear silhouette that is seen only in the Pacific. Or to see them as Rosa Maria and her dog do, while jogging, without any fixation, feeling her lungs fill with oxygen to later take advantage of them, taking a pause, a deep breath, without forgetting that contained in the ocean are hundreds of stories to be told, this is also valid.
But there is something that without a doubt happens, it does not matter how you look at them, they remain in your memory like part of a landscape that takes your breath away, makes you shudder and fills you with joy. Maybe that is why Don Rogelio captures them on his camera, to share with others what forever he will remember.
