Mexican Contemporary [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION "The most vital country of the Americas," is how visionary architect Richard Neutra once described Mexico. Mexico has it all. Ancient mythology, indigenous craft and indigenous color, the silence of CathoHc cloisters and convents, the precise geometry of pre-Hispanic cultures, the tranquility of the transplanted Moorish courtyard, the magnificent scale of Colonial haciendas—all set against the natural beauty of a vast landscape studded with darldy brooding volcanoes. Like pieces of an intricate mosaic, these cultural treasures comprise a sensual and exotic heritage that continues to shape the way the nation expresses itself. This majestic legacy has not been relegated to a dusty corner of some museum. Instead, all these elements "sown by time and history" continue to play a vital role in contemporary art, architecture, and design. The result is a captivating juggling act between innovation and tradition that Nobel-Prize-winning author Octavio Paz once described as "an example of how to employ our popular tradition with intelligence." In a sense what Paz refers to is a layering process. Artists and artisans of each successive generation add their own tier of influences and ideas. In Mexican architecture, the defining features remain, as ever, the courtyard, the wall, and the use of color. But to these ingredients architects and designers are bringing further innovations in scale and texture, creating spaces of massive volume, punctuated by extraordinary surfaces of rusted steel, volcanic stone, and weathered timber. As a result, Mexican houses have become more visually exciting and spatially sophisticated than ever before, without losing either the character or the simplicity that is the hallmark of a unique national signature. In the words of Marie-Pierre Colle, "A Mexican building, like a chorus of voices, sings a hymn of its heritage." And what beautiful music it makes.