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 Vallarta Living | Art Talk | June 2007 
Mexico City: Converted Fire Station Houses Art of the People
 Laurence Iliff - Dallas Morning News
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Mexico City - Many a Mexican museum can be called interesting or impressive, with their extensive collections of giant stone Olmeca heads and pre-Hispanic hand tools. But how about whimsical? How about magical? How about fun?
That's where the new Museum of Popular Art comes in. It celebrates the art still produced by about 8 million people, with dream-world alebrije papier-mache monsters and colorful embroidered tablecloths, tin soldiers and videos of popular celebrations.
Popular art often includes the best of the crafts sold in market towns in Oaxaca, Chiapas and Michoacan, really throughout the nation. There are pieces here from each of Mexico's 31 states.
Some of the inspiration is pre-Hispanic, but there is also religious art and pieces inspired by "the encounter of two cultures" after the Spanish conquest.
In other words, this is a great place for people interested in both Mexico's past and its present. There's also stuff kids will find cool, which is unusual in the rarefied world of Mexican museums.
Almost every imaginable material is used: wood, paper, metal, cloth, ceramics, straw, sawdust, coconut shell, bone and jewels.
I had seen part of the collection years earlier during a temporary exhibition at a more traditional museum, a colonial building with limited light and huge stone columns that are practically popular art in themselves.
But this is different. The Museum of Popular Art is housed in an old fire station that has been remodeled with an eye toward minimalism, which is perfect for the bright colors and varied textures of what is being exhibited.
Against a white wall, a huge wooden peacock spreads its tail in green, pink, purple, yellow and orange splendor.
A collection of smiling or scary, red or brown, horned and unhorned devils, some with angel's wings or bloody fangs, stare tauntingly out of a glass case.
A copper pot as big as a bathtub shimmers with the thousands of artisans' blows that created it.
The fire station, built in 1928, has huge ceiling domes to allow natural lighting, and the building is large, with swaths of open space occupied by just one or two pieces.
The stairs (there are two elevators for the four-story building) retain a more formal flavor from their past life, with heavy stone and a wooden handrail.
The museum is air-conditioned and has a coffee shop and an extensive store with a nice variety of handicrafts, books and other gifts.
Finding a permanent place for Mexico's popular art has been a goal for decades, but the museum was inaugurated only last year. It has individual and corporate sponsors, allowing free admission.
The individual descriptions of the more than 2,000 pieces are in English and Spanish, as are the introductions to each section, such as the one on devil figures, which explains that indigenous Mexicans had no concept of the devil.
While the people adopted the concept brought by the Spanish, many of the devil-like figures are less menacing, some even playful. Likewise, the skeletal papier-mache figures are whimsical. One wears a tuxedo and smokes a cigar.
Video screens show traditional Mexican celebrations, dances and dress, complete with sound. Celebrations called mandas are offerings to a saint or superior being for a favor received. Mitotes are traditional agricultural festivals.
The extensive collection of traditional Mexican dress includes examples from the Mixteco, Zapoteca, Amuzgo and Tzotil Indian cultures.
The "trees of life" section offers examples of the intricate, treelike sculptures celebrating fertility and life. One, "the tree of typical Mexican dances," has layers of scenes with dancing figures in sometimes-outrageous dress, including rainbow hats and animal masks.
Color, light and the perception of movement are everywhere, filling the museum with life and energy - joy, too, since many pieces express optimism and celebration.
One of the most popular Mexican art forms is the alebrije figure, usually made from papier-mache. The modern-day creations are supposed to invoke "the stuff that dreams are made of," with their fantastical features and dragonlike, nightmarish expressions.
Less dramatic, but still bizarre, are carved wooden animals that mix reality and fantasy. An example is a life-size, coyote-like figure painted pink and green and bent in a strange arc.
Traditional masks are favorites. They range from the austere to the extravagant.
Religious art represented here includes images of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
There are also practical examples of Mexican craftsmanship such as furniture, tablecloths and tablecloth sets. Musical instruments and ceremonial headdresses share space with a 10-foot-tall papier-machι devil.
The salons are divided into themes such as "Essence," "Everyday life" and "Dawn of the XXI century," and it isn't clear whether visitors are supposed to see them in a specific order. I mostly ambled, poring over what I liked and skimming the rest.
There is just the right amount to see in an hour.
What's truly nice about the Museum of Popular Art is that it tends to invigorate rather than to overwhelm, leaving a smile on one's face not so different from many of the grinning figures inside the glass cases.
IF YOU GO: The Museum of Popular Art is at the corner of Revillagigedo and Independencia in Mexico City's historic downtown area, directly behind the Sheraton Centro Historico (not the Sheraton Maria Isabel). It's two blocks south and one block east of the subway station Hidalgo. It's open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and until 8 p.m. on Thursday. (011-5255) 5521-2921; www.map.org.mx (in Spanish and in French). |
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