'Wings of the City': Selfie Diplomacy Soaring Over the U.S.-Mexico Divide Ray Mark Rinaldi - The Denver Post
go to original July 10, 2016

A woman poses before “Wings of the City” by artist Jorge Marin on the Reforma in Mexico City (Getty Images)

Fear not the threat of any walls going up between the U.S and Mexico. Jorge Marin’s bronze wings offer a way to soar above the things that would divide the two countries.

It’s a metaphorical rise, of course. Though standing in front of his identical Wings of the City sculptures in Mexico City and Denver, you get the feeling that optimism and fantasy — and a love of selfies — are unstoppable forces uniting the two countries.

Marin’s disembodied wings beg you pose in front of them and feel the freedom of flight. People line up 20 deep at the original version, set along the Mexican capital’s elegant Paseo de la Reforma boulevard. And they have begun doing so in Denver’s Commons Park, where a replica was installed last month amid a display of nine, large-scale works by the artist.

How the posers comport themselves is another commonality. Some thrust their hands in the air like Superman, while others freeze gently and cast a heavenly gaze into the air. A favorite in both countries is the bicep pump, often accompanied by a powerful “Grrrr,” which needs no translation into English or Spanish.

Marin believes the way people interact with the sculpture says a lot about their innermost qualities, their ego or shyness, their religiosity or sense of humor.

“I think people have a reflection about their own self,” he said in a recent interview in his elegant studio in Mexico City’s swank Roma Norte neighborhood. “What Am I? Maybe I am an angel. Or am I a fake angel? Or am I a monster?”

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