The Art Newspaper

Chilean artist creates symbol of hope for trapped miners

The 33-story-high Tower Santa Maria consists of more than 350 fluorescent tubes lighting the windows of one of the city's tallest towers

By Marisa Mazria Katz. From Frieze daily edition
Published online: 13 October 2010

Sebastian Errazuriz's Tower Santa Maria

LONDON. A 33-story high public art installation has been erected in Santiago, Chile, in honour of the 33 miners still trapped 2,000 feet underground as we went to press.

Tower Santa Maria consists of more than 350 fluorescent tubes placed inside the windows of one of the city's tallest towers. When illuminated the bulbs create an enormous cross of light illuminated on the building’s facade. Come evening, Tower Santa Maria can be seen from several kilometers away.

The project, by Chilean-born, New York-based artist Sebastian Errazuriz, was installed just as a giant drill bit began making its way down to the miners.

Errazuriz says the concept is inspired by “a South American tradition of lighting candles to saints in hopes they will look after their loved ones. The cross represents them and us in silence and as a symbol of the fragility of life.”

The building selected by the artist also has a tragic lineage of its own. In 1981, the 12th floor was subsumed by a fire that subsequently killed dozens. Denied both corporate and government funds for the project, Errazuriz instead turned to the city's burgeoning contemporary art scene and received fiscal sponsorship from the Santiago-based Departamento 21 gallery.