Description /
Iván Argote and Floating Museum, DIGNIDAD, 2026, wood, cement, fiber mesh, pigment, flatbed truck
DIGNIDAD was developed by Floating Museum in collaboration with artist Iván Argote and curator Carla Acevedo-Yates. As the fourth installment in the Floating Monuments series, the project continues an exploration of how monuments can function beyond fixed, commemorative objects—reimagining them as forms that move through the city, pointing to erased or suppressed histories, and engaging public life in real time.
Composed of concrete letters spelling the word “DIGNIDAD,” the work exists simultaneously as sculpture, language, and social proposition. Mounted on a flatbed truck, it moves through the city as both object and message, a monument that does not stay still long enough to become invisible.
The project launches in Humboldt Park, a neighborhood with deep cultural and historical significance for Chicago’s Puerto Rican community, and emerges from a multi-year dialogue and creative process. The community stabilized in its current location after persevering through a 1950s urban renewal campaign that displaced over 900 families from their homes in “La Clark” on Chicago’s north side. Broader political struggles—including oppressive laws like La Ley de la Mordaza, which prohibited the display of the Puerto Rican flag, even within one’s own home, also shape the historical context surrounding the project.
Shaped by histories of resistance, resilience, and transcultural solidarity, the work responds to conditions that continue to affect migrant and Latine communities. Beginning as a participant in the Puerto Rican People's Day Parade before traveling to additional sites across the city, the sculpture carries these histories and conversations through visibility and collective encounter.
The word “dignidad” functions as both language and form. Its use of Spanish is intentional, reflecting the presence of communities whose language, labor, and culture continue to shape the city. In this sense, the work approaches concrete poetry: meaning carried not only through language, but through form, scale, material, and movement. Here, the word itself becomes material—moving through public space as something physical and shared.
DIGNIDAD brings together Argote’s longstanding engagement with public space and Floating Museum’s ongoing exploration of the monument as a mobile and participatory form. Developed collaboratively with Carla Acevedo-Yates through the Floating Monuments series, the project extends these shared interests through sculpture and collective participation—creating a monument that remains visible through circulation, and public life.
Click here to read the full Press Release.
DIGNIDAD is a collaboration with Iván Argote and Carla Acevedo-Yates and was made possible by generous support from the Mellon Foundation.
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Iván Argote and Floating Museum, DIGNIDAD, 2026, wood, cement, fiber mesh, pigment, flatbed truck
DIGNIDAD was developed by Floating Museum in collaboration with artist Iván Argote and curator Carla Acevedo-Yates. As the fourth installment in the Floating Monuments series, the project continues an exploration of how monuments can function beyond fixed, commemorative objects—reimagining them as forms that move through the city, pointing to erased or suppressed histories, and engaging public life in real time.
Composed of concrete letters spelling the word “DIGNIDAD,” the work exists simultaneously as sculpture, language, and social proposition. Mounted on a flatbed truck, it moves through the city as both object and message, a monument that does not stay still long enough to become invisible.
The project launches in Humboldt Park, a neighborhood with deep cultural and historical significance for Chicago’s Puerto Rican community, and emerges from a multi-year dialogue and creative process. The community stabilized in its current location after persevering through a 1950s urban renewal campaign that displaced over 900 families from their homes in “La Clark” on Chicago’s north side. Broader political struggles—including oppressive laws like La Ley de la Mordaza, which prohibited the display of the Puerto Rican flag, even within one’s own home, also shape the historical context surrounding the project.
Shaped by histories of resistance, resilience, and transcultural solidarity, the work responds to conditions that continue to affect migrant and Latine communities. Beginning as a participant in the Puerto Rican People's Day Parade before traveling to additional sites across the city, the sculpture carries these histories and conversations through visibility and collective encounter.
The word “dignidad” functions as both language and form. Its use of Spanish is intentional, reflecting the presence of communities whose language, labor, and culture continue to shape the city. In this sense, the work approaches concrete poetry: meaning carried not only through language, but through form, scale, material, and movement. Here, the word itself becomes material—moving through public space as something physical and shared.
DIGNIDAD brings together Argote’s longstanding engagement with public space and Floating Museum’s ongoing exploration of the monument as a mobile and participatory form. Developed collaboratively with Carla Acevedo-Yates through the Floating Monuments series, the project extends these shared interests through sculpture and collective participation—creating a monument that remains visible through circulation, and public life.
Click here to read the full Press Release.
DIGNIDAD is a collaboration with Iván Argote and Carla Acevedo-Yates and was made possible by generous support from the Mellon Foundation.
