RETABLO. MASA

Masa. Year: 1986. Dimensions: Open: 48 x 115 x 27 cm / Closed: 48 x 58 x 27 cm. This retablo is inspired by the poem "Masa" by César Vallejo, whose stanzas are depicted in a succession of scenes of war and violence from around the world. Various wartime moments are layered on top of one another and are recognizable through the presence of uniforms, weapons — tanks, warships, spears, rifles, etc. — flags, and more: the wars between pharaohs, the War of the Pacific, the First and Second World Wars, etc. The poem narrates in verse how a corpse is urged to come back to life on repeated occasions — by one, two, twenty, one hundred, one thousand, five hundred thousand, millions of men — without success. Only when all the men on Earth gather around it asking it to revive does the corpse rise and begin to walk. In the retablo, this culminating scene is represented by five people — one from each continent — who, holding hands, dance joyfully in the manner of a cheerful araskaska. The dead man rises energetically with a torch in his hand. Throughout all these moments, the corpse is always tended to or accompanied by the Madre Patria, who upon the resurrection of the body plays trumpet music. In the background we see three resplendent suns: the one on the left, in a red tone, represents death. This reddened sun illuminates a sea in which warships float and burn before a shore on which great architectural works of humanity are depicted, also surrounded by fire. Toward the middle, the fire ceases at the foot of a great hill in blue-white tones bearing the silhouette of Vallejo, who is illuminated by a yellow sun shining in a dark sky. This represents a period of tension in which Vallejo lies deep in thought. Toward the right, the sky clears and we see a valley full of life with a river — whose presence recurs throughout Edilberto's works — illuminating and serving as a metaphor for the resurrection of the corpse.