Freeing Clement Meadmore's ‘Janus’

By David Hulme & Brigitte Banziger, on 23-Apr-2012

Clement Meadmore is one of Australia’s most famous expat artists and has created some of the most outstanding and highly sought after sculptures here and in his long-time home in the US. Meadmore is the subject of a documentary film being produced by Frontyard Films, his auction prices top the $100,000 mark and his sculptures are on public display worldwide.

Clement Meadmore is one of Australia’s most famous expatriate artists and his sculptures are on public display worldwide. Not so his sculpture ‘Janus’ in Mexico City, which has been appropriated by a private school and is no longer accessible to the public.

Not so one of his largest works, ‘Janus’, which has been languishing hidden away from public access since 1996

 

We came across ‘Janus’ on a sabbatical in Mexico when we noticed a small maquette of a Clement Meadmore sculpture at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City. The curator explained that Meadmore had created ‘Janus’ for the ‘Ruta de la Amistad’ (Route of Friendship) for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, which turned into the world’s longest urban sculptural corridor of international contemporary art. But as he pointed out to us, the public work was not accessible to the public anymore – even though it was gifted by the Australian government to the Mexican public.

 

Not to be deterred, we wanted to view the work in situ and set off on what turned into a major quest to Mexico City’s outskirts, finally locating the sculpture behind a bright pink fence in the grounds of a private school next to a major highway. After lengthy negotiations with security guards we were finally given access to see the massive cement structure up close. We could now fully appreciate the curator’s passion for freeing this magnificent work from behind bars, and for the whole ‘Ruta de la Amistad’.

 

Urban sprawl and pollution have damaged most of the 22 sculptures created by sculptors from around the world, among them Mexico’s Helen Escobedo, American Alexander Calder, Swiss Willi Gutman, and Belgian Jacques Moeschal.

 

A group in Mexico is determined to restore this unique sculptural body of work to its former glory. The ‘Patronato Ruta de la Amistad’ is working towards relocating the sculptures so that they can be protected from environmental damage and made accessible to the public again. The Patronato is lobbying far and wide to have the first 6 sculptures - among them ‘Janus’ - moved to a new home, as the construction of a new highway threatens them even more.

 

Funding is a major obstacle in achieving this goal. To make things even harder in the case of ‘Janus’, a private entity has not only appropriated the sculpture, but also incorporated it into its logo. The Patronato has launched a petition to return ‘Janus’ to the public.

 

Moving works have started for three sculptures, as you can see in the video footage – click on the links below for footage of relocating the sculptures from Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and México (Angela Gurria).

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMoz80iS6Ho&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSr7BG_3ab0

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mtNNh2MM_o&list=UUDa51blQLIrJaEiyR7wHKvg&index=1&featu%20re=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LtxC-n7BTg&feature=email

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df1cZCdDono

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVcJaxG1JuY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-NqKFoiMzQ

 

  

On ABC Radio National, Michael Cathcart interviewed David Hulme and Richard Broinowski, the former Australian ambassador to Mexico, on the fate of Clement Meadmore’s ‘Janus’:  http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/booksandartsdaily/clement-meadmore-sculpture-languishing-in-mexico-city/3966056

 

Link:  Patronato Ruta de la Amistad website:  http://www.mexico68.org/

About The Author

Brigitte Banziger and David Hulme are the principals of Banziger Hulme Fine Art Consultants, established since 2003. With their combined experience of over 40 years, they provide private collectors as well as companies and public institutions with independent expert art valuations. In addition to their appraisals for insurance, family law, deceased estates and market values, they assist clients with transparent advice when buying or selling an individual artwork or an entire collection, for some of Australia’s most significant private collectors. David Hulme is an approved valuer for the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, and both Brigitte and David are members of the Art Consulting Association of Australia, where David served as President from 2015 to 2019. David Hulme is a regular art market critic and commentator on the Australian art market and has been interviewed by numerous media, including the 'Australian Financial Review', 'The Australian' and 'The Sydney Morning Herald'. He has also been interviewed on Network 10’s 'The Project', on the ABC’s Radio National Breakfast show with Hamish MacDonald, the ABC’s 'The Business' program amongst many others.

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