Vía Expresa: this is how the mural designed by the artist Ricardo Wiesse in the 90s was restored

Our Lima, which turns 487 years old this January 18, was different in 1991. Words like hyperinflation, terrorism and poverty echoed throughout the country, and the capital was no exception. On the other hand, ideas such as public space, art or, even worse, the combination of both, had no place in the imagination of the majority of Lima. However, where it did have a place was in the head, hands and art of Ricardo Wiesse (Lima, 1954), who, with the support of the then mayor of Miraflores, Alberto Andrade, and at the request of the district’s cultural manager for those years, Luis Lama, ventured to design and give life to a mural that would cover 10,000 square meters of the interior walls of the Vía Expresa, in the section that covers that district.

In 1997 maintenance work was done. However, since then, the mural has been left out of the priorities of municipal efforts.

Until recently, inside the Vía Expresa that connects the center of Lima with the Costa Verde, the mortal remains of Wiesse’s ceramic mural were found, an impressive mosaic made in the early 1990s that deteriorated over the years. years. The majolicas began to fall and urban art, the graffiti that began to cover the work, reinterpreted the face that the mural then showed. It was the symbol of a city that put aside its relationship with art, and its relationship with public space”, says Rafael de Orbegoso, a researcher who accompanied Ricardo Wiesse in the restoration and reinterpretation of his work.

The project presented by Ricardo Wiesse to the Municipality of Miraflores in 1991 contemplated an estimated area of ​​1,200 square meters. In notes from the time, Wiesse points out: “The work consists of covering the walls on both sides of the Vía Expresa, the central section of the Miraflores district. I will use waste ceramic material, glued and arranged on the surface according to a linear chromatic pattern determined at a scale of 1:200, which will be transferred rigorously to real dimensions. The lateral faces and the supports of the bridges will be taken into account.

The work then was financed by the municipality, but it had, as it does today, the sponsorship of the private company. This was the construction of the monumental project that became a symbol of Miraflores.

A wall, a dream

The current management of the Municipality of Miraflores, headed by Luis Molina, finally decided to bet on the restoration of the five blocks of walls lined with glazed ceramics. Miguel Molinari, manager of Culture and Tourism of the municipality of Miraflores, says that The restoration work, commanded by Ricardo Wiesse, began in October 2019, but the work had to be suspended when the coronavirus pandemic broke out. The works resumed on May 3, 2021 and ended in December. In the year of the bicentennial, our capital did have a work to inaugurate.

Ricardo Wiesse speaks of restoration with the evident satisfaction of a job well done and with a tone somewhere between happy and melancholic. He never tires of thanking the contribution of the private company with the donation of majolicas, scaffolding and glue; and highlights the will of the municipality of Miraflores, since he was always willing to work in the restoration, only he did not find an echo in the authorities. “It was sad and painful to see the mural falling off little by little,” he says. “I made this mural thinking of the city, to bring it a bit of air, to give the inhabitants of Lima a space in which to find a break. Suddenly it seemed that all this was not important, ”he adds.

a new future

The restoration of this magnificent work was carried out by 35 young specialists commanded by Jorge Gutiérrez, producer of work that Ricardo Wiesse convened on this occasion as he did 30 years ago. Jorge was working in Argentina, but he did not hesitate to repeat the experience next to Ricardo, his old friend.

About the restored work, Wiesse wrote: “The current one is a synthesized version of the previous one, whose design of repeated lines alluded to the sea and the desert interspersed as the essences of the natural landscape that frames the city. Now, open space remains the theme, punctuated by a fraction of the previous undulating verticals. Its large empty sections dissolve into porous borders, in gradual passages from one tone to another, in accordance with the slight changes of the silent sandbanks, to the subtle gradations that populate the clear perspectives and to the simplicity that calms and neutralizes the hostile vibrations of the environment”.

The mural undoubtedly accompanies passers-by like a breath of fresh air that frees them from all visual aggression. Ricardo Wiesse emphasizes that the route does not impose literal representations, but rather invites one to dream. “They are not defined lines or concrete figures. I like to feed the visual curiosity of the passerby. Abstract art confronts people with the stimuli that are presented to them, awakening their sensitivity. If someone, seeing it, feels that it brightens their day, that is enough for me”, says the artist.

Rafael de Orbegoso celebrates with special joy the completion of the work and the possibility of its expansion. “Can you imagine if the murals along the entire road offered passers-by the possibility of enjoying a space of respite in the midst of chaos? In terms of social and economic development, our country has made progress, but its cultural manifestations continue to lack the importance they deserve,” he says.

Restoring the mural of the Vía Expresa, both materially and symbolically, restores hope in this city that stands in the midst of chaos. For those of us who are over 30 years old, it is about the restoration of 10,000 square meters of pure nostalgia.