Gonzalo Elvira

NEUQUÉN, PATAGONIA ARGENTINA, 1971

‘History is the past in so far as it is historicised in the present—historicised in the present
because it was lived in the past’.
Jacques Lacan

Los primeros fríos (The First Cold) is a project revolving around the sculpture of the same name by Miquel Blay i Fábregas (Olot), whose original is located at MNAC (National Art Museum of Catalonia), while the copy made by the sculptor himself is located in the Carlos Thays Botanical Garden in the city of Buenos Aires.

The sculpture witnessed firsthand the demonstration held on 1 May 1909 in the former Plaza Lorea, where an undefined number of workers were murdered due to police repression, which unleashed Red Week in Buenos Aires.

During that demonstration, this sculptural group received six bullet shots, four on the man’s back and two on the girl’s back.

Los primeros fríos (The First Cold) is a chapter within the research atlas I have been developing around certain wrinkles or holes in history.

Micro-histories.