July 2023

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ART & ARCHITECTURE DERIVES

The eco-aesthetics of  El Pedregal and the constructive botany in Mexico megacity

A conversation with Peter Krieger

With the participation of Juan José Kochen

This talk explores the urban-natural and artistic-architectural relationship of the Pedregal de San Ángel Ecological Reserve (REPSA), a unique reserve in the world that is located within Ciudad Universitaria and that protects an extraordinary fund of biodiversity stressed by the current unsustainable development of the mega city of Mexico.

Thanks to the fact that it is a place where the city, wild vegetation and volcanic rock remnant of the eruption of the Xitle volcano coexist, it has functioned as a didactic enclave that has been a source and inspiration for works of contemporary art such as STRATUM by Luis Carrera-Maul (MUCA Campus, 2022) or Modthern Nature by Gabriela Galván (Arte Abierto, 2023). It has also been the setting for imagining a new type of architecture that leaves only a minimal ecological footprint: constructive botany, a model created by the German architect Hannes Schwertfeger, who introduced it to Mexico in 2022 in a workshop given at UNAM.

This Derive reflects on how architecture, art and nature find points of confluence to think about our environmental responsibility as current inhabitants of the basin of Mexico and the world.

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Peter Krieger
He is a PhD in Art History from the University of Hamburg, Germany, a researcher at the Institute for Aesthetic Research and a professor at UNAM’s Postgraduate Studies in Architecture and Art History. He has conducted research and publications on aesthetics, history, theory, ecology, and political iconography of architecture, cities, and landscapes. He is currently working on a book about the Pedregal de San Ángel Ecological Reserve. From 2004 to 2012 he was vice president of the International Committee for the History of Art (CIHA / UNESCO) and from 2010 to 2018 member of the Outdoor Advertising Commission, Ministry of Development and Housing, Government of Mexico City. During 2016 and 2017 he was visiting professor at the universities of Hamburg / chair Aby Warburg, Tübingen and Regensburg.

www.peterkrieger-ecoaesthetics.com/

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Juan José Kochen
Architect and publisher. He studied Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Journalism at the Carlos Septién García School of Journalism and a master’s degree in Analysis, Theory and History of Architecture at UNAM. He wrote for the newspaper Reforma, was editor of Arquine, consultant to the General Subdirectorate of Sustainability and Technology of Infonavit, fellow of the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt), of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and of the Youth Program Creators of the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA) on two occasions. He is the author of La utopía como modelo, a professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana and collaborator of the Sordo Madaleno Foundation.

TW @kochenjj

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Arte Abierto continues with its new public program Derivas de Arte y Arquitectura (Art & Architecture Derives), 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.

September 24: Juan José Kochen/ The Ideal of the Multifamily Apartment cComplex.

October 29: Tania Candiani/ Quantum Prelude. Sound activation by Tania Candiani.

March 25: Ana Garduño/ Cultural Geographies: The invention of museum circuits in 20th century Mexico City.

May 27: Rebeca Barquera/ The Plastic Integration Movement México: More than murals on buildings.

June 17: Peter Kriegel/ The eco-aesthetics of El Pedregal and constructive botany in the megacity of Mexico.