He has created a Trojan horse and dreams of traveling along the Pan-American Highway hidden inside

On the right side of the hatch of a gigantic wooden horse arrived in the city of Troy the following sentence could be read: “In the grateful hope of a safe return to their homes after an absence of nine years, the Greeks dedicate this offering to Athena”.

The locals, great believers, accepted the gift and, without knowing it, signed the fall of their city.

There were writers who claimed that 23 men were hidden inside the huge animal. Others listed 30. Some, about fifty. The author of the “Little Iliad” mentioned 3000.

It matters that, according to Homer, the first to report the hypothetical existence of the Trojan horse, these men – all Achaean soldiers – used the empty creature as bait to enter rival territory and allow their large army to do the same.

If it had existed, the horse would have served the Trojan people 800 years before Christ. They would have moved it using rotating logs and human traction. In the latest film about the Trojan War, you can see how dozens of citizens forcefully drag it by means of thick ropes.

Now, having examined these superficial data of the more media element of the epic battle between the Trojans and the Greeks, Is it possible for you, reader, to imagine the Trojan horse, an undeniably symbolic, imposing, impressive, eccentric, mythical and world-famous instrument “galloping” across the Pan-American Highway?

“The Trojan horse is the race”

Santiago Lopez

The Argentine Santiago Lopez you can imagine And for this, among other reasons that we will discover, created a Trojan horse in his shop in Pilar.

López is 45 years old, has three small children and lives in Buenos Aires. Before the pandemic, he worked as a photographer and event organizer; after the disaster he started a furniture factory that is now stopped due to his new vocation: art.

Audacityas he calls his wooden horse the “Trojan horse breed”, it is his first work.

The name has to do with the tenor of the project. With the “mystique”. Its creator came to mind one day when he saw one of the films in the Divergent saga, as this is what one of the five factions into which the universe of the science fiction saga is divided is called.

Santiago came to sculpture without stopping and without any kind of knowledge on the subject, despite having explored other arts. Before Osadía’s existence, he painted, for example, several canvases. He has also written a screenplay of more than a hundred primers for a feature film that will be narrated – probably by himself – from a point of view “never seen before” in the cinema.

His “philosophy of life”, says the improvised sculptor in Clarín, is to learn something new a year. Just as this Chinese 2022 belongs to the Water Tiger, for López is the current year that of the “majestic” Sculpture?

The horse of the “Trojan horse race” that is about to end up in his garden will be finished on the 12th of this month, the same day of its presentation to the world. In his payments, Osadía will be the main attraction of a meeting called “Troya Fest”.

The sculpture measures 4.50 x 5.20 meters. It has a detachable head, it can be transported in a trailer, its front door is in the crate and inside there is a living room where six people can comfortably live (It’s prepared for eight, but six, according to López, are ideal).

The Pilar native started Osadía more or less as if it were Vincent Van Gogh trying to capture the landscapes of Arles in the middle of a cyclone while his easel was blown up.

First he drew a picture of the insect. Then she soldered all the loose irons she had on hand. He used all types of wood, including French oak and nine old wine barrels, ideal for the animal’s back due to its curvature. Osadía is made up of motor sailers, boats (what López understands, “a Trojan mystic” gives him), screws, nuts, holes.

“One day I said to myself ‘I want to be an artist’, and for this I have to do something tremendously powerful, majestic, that makes noise”

His three young children not only support him, but are “fascinated” by the invention. “You just have to dare to do it”, advises the sculptor.

Although the idea of ​​doing something magnanimous was latent, the tribute to the Trojan horse, the reason, was born by chance. It was after Lopez saw an illustrated social media post featuring Pitt’s horse, the 12-ton fiberglass horse now resting in Çanakkale, Turkey, after Hollywood gave him as a token of forgiveness for failing shot the film there.

“I’ll do it and I’ll go to hell,” thought the new artist at that moment.

The hallmark of his utopia, he says, is that he, unlike other sculptors, dared to tear it down.

His dream is that Osadía will walk along the Pan-American highway in all its glory. That is, with a head, because to extract it from Pilar you will have to disassemble the crown of the work. Already on the go, she believes that she will be able to “gallop” completely without problems.

López also wants to travel inside Osadía with his assistant and drink whiskey in the interior living room until he reaches the exhibition in La Rural. (Palermo) where his pet, he says, will be a guest of BADA Argentina from 25 August.

“I want to travel inside Osadia drinking whiskey with my assistant”

Lopez’s next step is to make his horse “thousands of dollars”. Switching from wood to paper, respecting the natural production cycle.

He wants to hit a record number of sales, deliver Dauntless to the highest bidder (he says he already has potential buyers).

López claims that his first work was soon welcomed by the circle of Argentine sculptors in the area, so much so that it was part of several future art exhibitions.

Santiago followed the reports of several professionals on social networks, showed them his work and, he assures, everyone was amazed. He too, he points out proudly, has received approval from Marta Minujinwho encouraged him via WhatsApp to finish his job.

Osadía will be followed by two sculptures that will be just as or crazier than the first. One is Ferrari’s Prancing Horse, which once finished will go as a gift to the headquarters of the Italian team; the other, which will be built entirely of iron, is a giant dragon on top of a royal truck driven by a princess. From the epic to the chivalrous without grays.