Rode up to to Polanco, a neighborhood that reminds me of Beverly Hills, very nice, lots of shopping, but much safer to ride a bike in. Polanco is home to the Soumaya Museum. This picture makes it look small, it does from the outside. The museum is named after the founder Carlos Slim's late wife and the shape resembles her body. This museum is free everyday. Which reminds me many of Mexico City's museums are closed on Mondays. I usually plan my museum visit agenda by which days are free.
These are what I consider the gems of the museum, with all do respect, to the artists who's names I didn't record (I rarely do because I always mix up that information) and to the collector.
Literally right next to the Soumaya is Jumex a Contemporary Art Museum. Free on Fridays.
Jumex has three floors and a book shop in the basement
First floor
Jerzy Grotowski, born1933 in Poland
He was a performer and shaman like Beuys.
His movements were based on cultural movement practices like yoga.
He dabbled with peyote saying it helped free his imagination and he made art instead of worrying about making art.
I felt weird reading that he had followers, ironically I was snapped out of taking most of it seriously after that. Maybe if they would have said he had super fans I would have felt differently.
First floor
Jerzy Grotowski, born1933 in Poland
He was a performer and shaman like Beuys.
His movements were based on cultural movement practices like yoga.
He dabbled with peyote saying it helped free his imagination and he made art instead of worrying about making art.
I felt weird reading that he had followers, ironically I was snapped out of taking most of it seriously after that. Maybe if they would have said he had super fans I would have felt differently.
Second Floor Jumex
IN GIRUM IMUS NOCTE ET CONSUMIMUR IGN
The title is a palindrome, you will find many different meanings.
How about this one "We go into the circle by night we are consumed by fire."
The exhibition is an exploration of "several approaches to curating that help us understand the choices implicit in forming and activating an art collection". Yep makes sense to me. All the works come from the museum's collection.
An entertaining exhibit, little dark, got some good laughs and saw work by many well known artists
IN GIRUM IMUS NOCTE ET CONSUMIMUR IGN
The title is a palindrome, you will find many different meanings.
How about this one "We go into the circle by night we are consumed by fire."
The exhibition is an exploration of "several approaches to curating that help us understand the choices implicit in forming and activating an art collection". Yep makes sense to me. All the works come from the museum's collection.
An entertaining exhibit, little dark, got some good laughs and saw work by many well known artists
Third Floor Jumex
Gustav Metzger born 1926, Germany
He developed auto-destructive art. I mean there is a ton to say about this. Destroying nature including human nature. Nature is not interchangeable with environment , which he believes is a meaningless term. We develop science for negative reasons. He thinks modern western society is burned out. He does not believe in permanent or object based art. I got his book I'm not done with it yet, maybe I'll report on it. But I feel like he reminded me of why I am an artist.
In this piece people are cutting out of this pile of paper and putting it up on the board. If I would have seen a bike as I walked around the pile I would have cut it out, otherwise I didn't want to try too hard to make a statement that no one will care about. I felt that I wasn't supposed to participate. I did use the scissors though to cut a tag out of my shirt that had been pestering me all day, that was awesome for me. I like Metzger's ideas. I also think it's interesting that he mentions people haave and need to get to nature and that speaks to exactly what Jerzy Grotowski from the first floor was trying to do in his art practice.
After Leaving the museums I took a nice ride through Bosque de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Forrest) which is right across the street from where I am staying. It is the hugest park in the western hemisphere. It has many places of interest, a castle, Modern Art Museum, Anthropology Museum, Natural History Museum, a zoo, many monuments, peace and quiet, a lot to do. You'll be seeing more of it.
Here's one amazing thing. One of the first days I saw this bike connected to a structure getting rained on. Now the structure is gone but the bike is still there. Notice the bike lock, if this were L.A. no one would lock their bike like that, if they did it would be stolen, but a lot of people here do lock their bikes similarly to this, which I appreciate. This is a beautiful bike, needs barely any fixing, I can't believe it is still there. |

I have read that only seven of these exist in the city, which I am glad and a little surprised that there are not more. But this is how bike riders killed by cars are memorialized, you will see this in L.A. too. Bike painted white. RIP.