O laçador: range of meaning and identity

Abstract

O Laçador was designed to symbolize the gaucho, the strength of the emblematic figure of the peasant, the main character of Rio Grande tradition, countryside worker and protagonist of livestock in Rio Grande do Sul pampa. The work of artist Antônio Caringi has been located for forty-eight years in Largo do Bombeiro, at one of the entrances of Porto AlegreRS), a place that, for its location, contributed to the sculpture’s incorporation into the city's image and thus to the imaginary of Porto Alegre’s citizens as icon of the city's identity and as a symbol of receptivity to those who arrived there. In 2007, due to a road project covering the original site, the sculpture was moved to a public open space specially designed to receive it: O Sítio do Laçador, less than a kilometer from the original place. The article discusses the route of this important public sculpture: creation, deployment in public area, identification with the city and the population, local transfer and impact of this change onto the city's image, in the urban identity and in the role of O Laçador in Porto Alegre’s landscape.