Taguspark pays tribute to Nelson Mandela with sculpture

The bust of Nelson Mandela was inaugurated at Taguspark. The sculpture, made of wood and polyester coated in chrome/mirrored stainless steel, is a tribute to this outstanding figure in world history and in the defense of human rights, freedom and democracy. The bust, by Clo Bourgard, can be visited every day in Nelson Mandela Square, next to the Núcleo Central, and is already part of Taguspark's urban art itinerary. The unveiling ceremony was attended by John Battersby, the South African journalist who most often interviewed the anti-apartheid leader and who became famous for hugging Nelson Mandela when he left prison.

The sculpture is an artistic tribute to Nelson Mandela's fundamental contribution to the defense of freedom. In the sculpture, a huge two-meter-high mirrored head rises from the ground like a 'captured voice', declaring to the heavens a fundamental principle - Man is a Free Being!

In the sculpture we observe Mandela at the same time as we observe ourselves. There is a deliberate fusion in this work. Clo Bourgard's Mandela's Head aspires to awaken our attention to adverse realities, to inside and outside our social and cultural circle, to our place in society. So that we can continue Madiba's "struggle" - for justice, racial inclusion and equal opportunities - with the head being the expression of historical memory and its (external) reflection from the mirrored matter, from everything that exists around it. As Elisa Ochoa says in her curatorial text.

"In 2019 I took a trip to South Africa, where I had the privilege of getting to know a bit about South African culture and its intrinsic historical connection to Nelson Mandela. I was struck by the sheet metal roofs of the tribal shanty towns outside the big cities, called Shanty Town, which from a distance gave an absolutely incredible visual effect. There was an intellectual anxiety to materialize everything I had seen into a piece of art. It was when I was invited by the Taguspark administration that this whole abstract creative process materialized in a sculpture made of metal sheets like the tribal Shanty towns." This is how Clo Bourgard describes the inspiration that led her to conceive the sculpture.

Eduardo Baptista Correia, CEO of Taguspark, points out that "the City of Knowledge already had the Nelson Mandela Square and now it also has a sculpture inspired by a great human being, a singular personality in the history of humanity. This bust is a tribute to Nelson Mandela, to his fundamental legacy for the 'liberation' of South Africa and to the great example he set the world in defending the values of human rights, equality and fundamental freedoms. I'd like to invite you to visit Taguspark and get to know this magnificent sculpture up close. It's an essential part of the urban art itinerary that we're developing and which fits in with two fundamental pillars of our activity: art and civic spirit."

The sculpture's unveiling ceremony was attended by Isaltino Morais (Mayor of Oeiras), Clo Bourgard, the sculpture's author, Portuguese journalist António Mateus and South African journalist John Battersby, both authors of two books about Nelson Mandela, Francisco Rocha Gonçalves (Deputy Mayor of Oeiras) and Nuno Delgado (Olympic Judo athlete).

The bust of Nelson Mandela is now an integral part of an Urban Art Museum under development in Taguspark, featuring works by several internationally recognized Portuguese artists, including Clo Bourgard, Boldalo II, Osir, Gonçalo Mar, The Caver, Styler, Youthone and the Rethorica Studio group.