If you visit the Recoleta district, in Buenos Aires, you will certainly stop in front of the Atlas de Recoleta, this amazing sculpture supporting a tree branch.

THE ARTIST BEHIND RECOLETA’S ATLAS
Joaquín Arbiza Brianza is an Uruguayan sculptor. Self-taught artist very appreciated and talented, he developed his career between Europe and America. He generally makes his works with scrap metal, with a style that tends towards realism.

Arbiza does not work with molds either. So that it would be impossible for him to make an identical sculpture twice. This is how he learned his trade eight years ago, right after he finished his studies, when his mother’s passion for cars had already conquered him. That summer when he got down to building his own buggy, he did it, started it, drove it, and it only ran for fifty yards. Then, having no car to get around, he started building dolls with the leftovers. This is how his career began, of which the Atlas is an essential cog.

RECOLETA ATLAS
The work was inaugurated in 2014. It was offered to the city by its creator and represents the legendary titan of Greek mythology who carries on one of his shoulders a heavy branch of the monumental rubber tree. Recoleta’s Atlas is 1.85m tall, weighs around 250kg and rests on a circular iron base. It is made up of more than three thousand car parts, welded and assembled. It was the artist Arbiza who moved it. First in his truck, then by boat.

About his work, Arbiza tells us: “I started thinking about the importance of this tree, which represents a world of stories. Then the Atlas came to mind. I like the classics. I have many books on Greek and Roman cultures. And then I communicated with the people of the commune,” says Arbiza, 26, from Marindia, Uruguay, where he lives. His house is his studio, a space where he collects material for his works every day, which he finds, which is brought to him. The flesh of the Atlas. Muscles. The veins.

THE RUBBER TREE AND THE RECOLETA DISTRICT
Its scientific name is Ficus elastica, but it is also called gum tree or rubber tree. It is sometimes referred to as El Gran Gomero or Gomero de la Recoleta

It was probably imported from India.

His arrival in this district is not certain. Some say it was planted by the agronomist Martin Altolaguirre and others claim it was part of the park of the “Virreina Vieja” estate, Rafaela de Vera y Pintado, widow of Joaquín del Pino, viceroy of the Río de la Plata between 1801 and 1804″.

The Gomero has grown a lot over the years. The tree has a wingspan of 50m {164ft}, the trunk has a diameter of 1.5 m, the branches are 28m long and the tree is about 20m {66ft} high.

-The historic rubber tree is already part of the emblem of the Recoleta district, designed by the architect Fernando Ferreira.

References ~

https://instagram.com/joaquin.arbiza

http://www.aboutbuenosaires.org/news/strongest-man-supports-oldest-tree-buenos-aires/