This Derive with Elisa Drago Quaglia takes a look at the figure of Alfonso Pallares, an often misunderstood visionary who explored the ideas of futurism in Mexico. The talk examines his work and his unique perspective on modernity.
The drama of modernity at the beginning of the 20th century was a hotbed of ideas and new visions for a world in constant transformation. The machine age and the rise of modern cities remain fascinating to us even today, a hundred years later, due to the incredibly rich creative process in which the planet was immersed. For a humanity facing a promising future, a new aesthetic, emotional, cultural, artistic, and architectural consciousness had to be invented. In this context of a new total art, the figure of Alfonso Pallares emerges—a character who was perhaps too modern even for the moderns. With a kinesthetic understanding of the world, out of step with his time and parallel to the violence of Italian Futurism, Pallares sought to give shape to his concerns and tried to exhibit them in our country, within a society culturally and architecturally rooted in conservative 19th-century values. Unable to understand him, they labeled him a madman.
If you couldn't join us you can watch the talk on our YouTube channel.
She holds a Master's and Ph.D. in Architecture from UNAM. She is a TC CIAUP/FA-UNAM Researcher and, since 2023, has been the coordinator of the Mexican Architecture Collection (AAM/FA-UNAM).
She teaches in the Architecture undergraduate program and the Lightweight Roofs specialization at FA-UNAM. Her research focuses on the historiographical review of 20th-century architecture and urbanism in Mexico, based on primary documentary sources.
Author of over forty book chapters and articles, and of the book Alfonso Pallares, Sower of Ideas (2016). She is also the coordinator of the books: Reading Alberto T. Arai: Reflections, Essays, and Texts (2019), Carlos González Lobo: Appropriate and Social Architecture (with Alejandra Contreras, 2024), and Architecture and Suburbs: In Search of the Periphery (with Alejandro Leal, 2024).
She is a member of DOCOMOMO Mexico and the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS), and holds Level 1 of SNI-SECIHTI.
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Arte Abierto inicia su programa de mediación y comunicación educativa 2022 con una conversación entre la investigadora y escritora Irmgard Emmelhainz y Sebastien Noel de Troika, tomando la exposición No Sound of Water como punto de partida. Abordarán los temas presentes en este proyecto, como el Antropoceno, y harán diferentes lecturas y cuestionamientos (Materialist Realism / Philosophy of Matter / Art as Image).
Irmgard Emmelhainz transmitirá en vivo desde No Sound of Water en Arte Abierto.
