El domo

El Domo is a large-scale architectural-painting installation created as part of Berenice Vargas Bravo’s Master 2 diploma at the Beaux-Arts de Nantes. Measuring 2.7 × 2.7 × 2.7 meters, the wooden and MDF structure is inspired by José Clemente Orozco’s mural El hombre en llamas (The Man of Fire), yet it reinterprets the upward gaze traditionally associated with domes. Here, looking up does not exalt a celestial vault; instead, it confronts the viewer with a sky that has turned into a burning inferno.

Within this enclosed space, mocking figures appear overhead, laughing at those trapped “below,” placing the audience in a disquieting position—at the bottom of a pit, gazing toward a hostile sky. The painted vault, executed in oil, extends into the architecture, while the flames of the composition spill outwards, becoming ornamental patterns across the structure itself.

El Domo marks one of Vargas Bravo’s first explorations into merging painting with spatial construction. By transforming pictorial motifs into architectural elements, the work creates a charged environment that blurs the line between image and structure, turning space into both stage and trap.