Who will design the monument where the remains of Miguel Ángel Asturias will rest?

Scenery

Sofía Schambach, a 25 -year -old artist, shares more details on how she was inspired by the winning proposal, which will be next to the remains of the Miguel Ángel Asturias Nobel Prize for Literature.

Piece in tribute to Miguel Ángel Asturias who won the first place. (Free Press Photo: Ministry of Culture and Sports)

Currently, the only Nobel Prize for Literature that Guatemala has rests at the Pére-Lachaise cemetery, In France, where he was buried. His grave is distinguished because he has the replica of wake 14, from Ceibal.

Last June, At the end of his death, on June 9, 2024, it was reported that the preparations for the return of the remains of Asturias to Guatemala were in process.

In November 2024, the Ministry of Culture and Sports published Agreement 1449-2024, with which a contest is created to design a monument where the remains of Miguel Ángel Asturias will rest.

The contest sought to exalt the life and work of the writer, as well as stimulate the monumental sculptural creation of Guatemalan artists. The Deputy Minister of Culture, Luis Rodrigo Carrillo, commented that about 35 proposals participated, of which three artists who will receive a cash prize were selected.

The winners

On Friday, May 30, it was explained that the rating jury of the unique and extraordinary sculpture contest “Miguel Ángel Asturias” selected the winner. It was made up of the teacher Max Leiva, Lucrecia Méndez de Penedo, Oscar Caal, Osmín Isidro de la Maza, Sandino Asturias Valenzuela, Ana Olivia Castañeda Arroyo and Anazush of Carmen Guzmán Morales.

The first place went to the piece Miguel Ángel Asturiasby María Sofía Castillo Schambach; the second place, Earth heart, by Cristian Cojulun and thirdly, Flight to dawn, of Mauro Jojcom.

In a telephone interview, Sofía Schambach shared that until Friday 30 the Ministry of Culture had not yet been communicated with her. On Monday, June 2, this process was achieved because the artist had to be notified to give validity to the process, Carrillo shared.

Schambach is Guatemalan and is currently 25 years old. At 14 he was a scholarship to study in Rome and then studied at the Art School in Barcelona.

The artist comments that she learned through the social networks of the Ministry. His work looked for a younger Miguel Ángelias younger and with a fabric that showed being a canvas in which fragments of poems written to Guatemala appear.

Much of his work is dedicated to the human figure, “every human body is beautiful and you have to learn to see it,” shares the winner.

Carrillo explains that they will now give the artist time to work and plan the date on which the writer’s remains to the country can return. The Deputy Minister expresses that the ideal would be October 19, for the date on which his birth is commemorated in 1899. On the same date but 1967, Asturias was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.