(I)cone is a ready made art installation that subverts the original purpose which of the object it is built from - the orange traffic cone -, which usually require traffic to circumvent an obstacle, inviting citizens and tourists to cross and interact with it.
Conscious of the absence of an extensive historic centre in Paredes, the Open Circuit of Public Art has the premises to encourage the visitors to explore other places in the city. Yearning to captivate visitors to the beautiful City Park, (I)cone assumes a strong iconographic identity, a compelling visual impact and a comprehensible conceptual discourse – albeit with different levels of interpretation –.
Distancing the object that it is compose of - the signalling cone - from its context par excellence - the street - (I)cone is installed at the City Park, taking advantage of the contrast between the natural landscape and the architectural object, and between the green vegetation and orange plastic.
Hacking its materiality from an everyday object, (I)cone introduces plastic as the main material of a permanent art installation, offering to this art circuit the (im)pertinent inclusion of a material not recognized in the so-called noble materials, but still solid and very resistant, and therefore offering a wide range of possibilities for this type of urban interventions
Using the traffic cone as its modular basis, (I)cone takes advantage of its formal and chromatic characteristics, building a portico that encourages citizens to have a closer proximity with art.
By night, the orange plastic is lit with a red LED network, illuminating the installation in Paredes City Park.
Curatorship: Laura Castro, Delfim Sardo, António Belém Lima, José Guilherme Abreu
Type: Competition 1st prize
Main Material: 500 Orange traffic cones
Engineering: NCREP
