August 2022

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DERIVES OF ART & ACHITECTURE

Tracing the modern in the architecture of the Historic Downtown of Mexico City.

A conversation with Christian del Castillo.

In our 7th Derive of Art and Achitecture we are joined by Christian del Castillo, who will talk to us about the modern architecture of the Historic Downtown of Mexico City.

The architectural imagery of the Historic Downtown of Mexico City is mainly nourished by the typologies of colonial architecture and the beginning of the 20th century, including pre-Hispanic architecture. It is a space where buildings from different eras and contexts overlap that have defied the passage of time, real estate speculation and the expiration of their materials.

Seeking to expand this imaginary, this conversation invites us to rediscover the projects and buildings —still standing— designed by those architects whose work was oriented towards the banner of modernity and who also emerged from the dialogues between plastic integration and the artistic avant-garde in Mexico.

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Christian del Castillo
He is an architect from UNAM, where he also studied a Master’s degree in Analysis, Theory and History with a focus on Mathias Goeritz and his contribution to Mexican architecture in the second half of the 20th century. He was curator and coordinator of the Micro-urbanism program of Casa Vecina (2013-2017). He is co-author of The Goeritz Guide (Arquine, 2015), author of Rastreando lo moderno, arquitectura en el Centro Histórico de la ciudad de México 1930-1960 (Casa vecina: Foundation of the Historic Center of Mexico City, 2017) and co-author of Mathias Goeritz: Espacio creativo (University of Guadalajara / CUAAD, 2019). He was a fellow of the Young Creators program of FONCA 2014-2015, in the Architectural Design category with the project “Possibilities of an emergency architecture”, the same project that was part of the exhibition “Mexicalidad. Design and new generations” carried out by the MODO museum (2018-2021).
www.christiandelcastillo.com/
FB @anarchitecture

Click here to see Christian del Castillo’s publication Rastreando lo moderno, arquitectura en el Centro Histórico de la ciudad de México 1930-1960.

Arte Abierto continues with its new public program “Derivas de arte y arquitectura”, which seeks to renew our gaze on the architectural legacy of Mexico City. From a series of talks focused on rescuing the parallel stories of emblematic architectural projects and public spaces that have witnessed the variable intersection between art and architecture. In this first stage, the program deals mainly with modern architecture, based on a series of talks given by invited curators, architects, artists and urban planners.

With this program, ways of returning to architecture part of its public, experiential, collective character and close to those of us who inhabit the city are tested, recognizing in it its condition as a living archive. From these talks, circumstances, contexts and anecdotes are revealed that have been part of his sensitive memory and that complement his material memory, a relationship that often escapes documentary narratives and academic accounts.

The objective of the drifts is to generate experiences of spatial rediscovery, which allow us to renew our gaze on the legacy of certain emblematic architectural and artistic works, as well as those that have been forgotten.

The derives will be carried out free of charge on the last Saturday of each month, at 1:00 p.m. with a limited capacity.

Arte Abierto Derives :

February 26: Tania Ragasol / Entorno urbano, cotidianidad y arte: La Torre de los Vientos by Gonzalo Fonseca

March 26 : David Miranda / Del Animal Herido y otros eventos escultóricos dentro de la arquitectura moderna

April 23: Gustavo Lipkau y Xavier Hierro / Integración plástica de los edificios del campus central de CU: sus murales

May 28: Marisol Argüelles / La casa-estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo. Del espacio doméstico a la dimensión de lo público

June 25: Luis Javier de la Torre/ La Ruta de la Amistad MÉXICO68… más allá de 1968

July 30: Aldo Solano/ Architecture for playing in 20th Century Mexico City.

August 27: Christian del Castillo/ Tracing the modern in the architecture of the Historic Center of Mexico City.