New York public art premiere of internationally acclaimed artist Jaume Plensa, featuring a new monumental, site-specific sculpture for Madison Square Park. Plensa's Echo will mark the single largest monolithic work of art presented in the 7-year history of Mad. Sq. Art. Echo, Plensa's new site-specific installation serves as a monument to everyday people, both within and without Madison Square Park. Creatively inspired by the presence of the 9-year old daughter of a restaurant proprietor near Plensa's home in Barcelona, the 44-f... Read more

New York public art premiere of internationally acclaimed artist Jaume Plensa, featuring a new monumental, site-specific sculpture for Madison Square Park. Plensa’s Echo will mark the single largest monolithic work of art presented in the 7-year history of Mad. Sq. Art.

Echo, Plensa’s new site-specific installation serves as a monument to everyday people, both within and without Madison Square Park. Creatively inspired by the presence of the 9-year old daughter of a restaurant proprietor near Plensa’s home in Barcelona, the 44-feet tall sculpture comprised of white fiberglass resin depicts the face of this inspiring young girl in a dream state from the neck, up. Plensa’s sculpture, made from marble gel-coated fiberglass-reinforced plastic, will be sited on the central Oval Lawn of Madison Square Park. Its monumental size and vertical orientation reflect the park’s surrounding architecture, while the visage of the sculptor’s subject exudes a welcoming tranquility perfectly suited to this cherished urban oasis.

Drawing inspiration from the presence of a real person in real time, Plensa’s monumental sculpture also references the myth of the Greek nymph Echo. According to Greek mythology, Echo was a nymph, who loved her own voice until it was later taken. From that point forward the legend tells of Echo being able to utter the thoughts of others but not her own. Jaume Plensa’s Echo plays on the tale of this Greek myth, creating a sculpture of massive scale drawing parallels to the Greek Echo’s origins as a mountain nymph. The reference is carried further by the artist’s decision to depict the young 9-year old girl’s face in a dream state, translating this massive sculptural portrait into a physical monument of all the voices and thoughts of others internalized by Madison Square Park as by the nymph in the myth of Echo.