Runo Lagomarsino

During the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the “discovery” of America, a huge monument in bronze depicting Christopher Columbus was created in Seville. The monument was titled The Birth of the New Man but is better known as The Egg of Columbus as the sculpture of Columbus stands inside an enormous egg. The nickname refers to the story of how Columbus, after having been told that the discovery of America was no great accomplishment, challenged his critics to make an egg stand on its tip. In 2012 I bought 12 eggs in Buenos Aires and transported them illegally first to São Paulo, where I live, and then to Seville. I carefully unpacked and packed them at every stop to make sure the eggs would not break during the journey. In Seville I met up with my father who lives in Spain after going into exile from Argentina in 1976. Together we threw the 12 eggs at the monument, giving back the eggs to the conquistador, an action at once pathetic and glorious.

Runo Lagomarsino lives and works in Malmö and São Paulo. With his work he explores how today’s political and social environments have developed through different discursive and historical processes. Processes which produce representations and metaphors from which we read and reread history and society.

Work

More delicate than the historians are the map maker’s colours, video. Courtesy the artists, Nils Staerk, Copenhagen and Mendes Wood, São Paulo

Location

Luleå