Antony Gormley
Allotment III
Permanent installation
University of Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
The work of British artist Antony Gormley, Allotment III, is now permanently displayed on the UDEM Campus, University of Monterrey, Mexico, adding to the cultural richness of the area and the daily life of the academic community. Created in 2008, the work evokes, in the artist's words: “Bodies and buildings, cities and cells, monuments and intimacies, each of the 'rooms'; in this piece is someone's, is connected to the moving body of an individual, alive and living.”
Allotment III comprises 300 life-size bunkers made of reinforced concrete. Each of the hollow, standing bunkers is made from the precise measurements of 300 inhabitants of Monterrey who volunteered to take part in the project. These measurements were then used to cast each concrete body case. Together, the rows of bunkers, some clustered in groups suggesting interpersonal relations and others standing alone, form a collective body as a landscape or cityscape.
At the end of its presentation at MARCO, the work was donated by the artist to the museum and remained in its collection for several years. After almost 10 years, Allotment III was integrated into the university campus to become part of its collection, now permanently installed and accessible to UDEM’s community and members of the public alike.