Museo Experimental El Eco

Museo Experimental el Eco
Museo Experimental el Eco, Mexico City, Mexico
Location within Mexico City Show map of Mexico City Museo Experimental El Eco (Mexico) Show map of Mexico
Established	1952; 71 years ago (1952)
Location	Sullivan 43 Colonia San Rafael Cuauhtémoc Mexico, 06470
Coordinates	19°26′00″N 99°09′40″W / 19.433417°N 99.16125°W / 19.433417; -99.16125
Director	Paola Santoscoy
Public transit access	Mexico City Metrobús, lines A1, A2, A3 and A5
Website	eleco.unam.mx

The Museo Experimental El Eco is a contemporary art gallery in the centre of Mexico City, Mexico.^[1] It was designed by sculptor Mathias Goeritz, a Mexican artist of German origin^[2] who worked closely with the Mexican architect Luis Barragán.^[3] Originally built in 1952–53, the gallery was extended by FR-EE/Fernando Romero Enterprise in 2007 "to expand its offices and special services to improve daily operations".^[3]

History of the building

In 1952, businessman Daniel Mont commissioned artist Mathias Goeritz to build a place that would articulate a new relationship between his commercial interests of a restaurant-bar and the avant-garde spirit of some cultural actors of the time, with the intention of finding something different from what was established. Under the premise "do whatever you want", Goeritz conceived the space on Sullivan Street in Mexico City. It was designed as a poetic structure whose layout of corridors, ceilings, walls, rooms and openings led its visitors to reflect their experience of space in an emotional act; This concept challenged the dominant interests of functionalism in architecture at that time. Based on his "Manifesto of emotional architecture", his writings also refer to inspiration of religious experiences and Gothic and Baroque architecture.

Goeritz conceived the building as a penetrable sculpture. This space was the creation of an unprecedented platform for the arts in the context of Mexican and international art of the 1950s.

In 2004, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México bought the building which re-opened its doors on 7 September 2005 after many months of restoration work to bring the building back to its original state.^[4] The project was intended to revive Goeritz's architectural legacy.^[5]

Pabellón Eco

In 2008, the museum initiated a national architecture competition to continue the legacy of spatial experimentation that hosts an interdisciplinary art program. The project offers a platform for young Mexican architects and is co-produced with Buró—Buró,^[6] an independent non-profit cultural office. The museum also organizes a conference around experimental architecture called Pabellón Eco: Panorama.^[7]

Pavilion winners:

2010: Frida Escobedo^{[citation needed]}
2011: Estudio MMX^{[citation needed]}
2012: Luis Aldrete^{[citation needed]}
2013: Estudio Macías-Peredo^{[citation needed]}
2015: Taller Capital^[8]
2016: APRDELESP^[9]
2018: Taller TO^[10]
2020: Cronoboros^[11]

Publications

Ensayo de Miguel A. González Virgen, 2006
Estamos hartos (otra vez), Mauricio Marcin and Ida Rodríguez, 2014
Autodestrucción 2, Abraham Cruzvillegas, 2014
La Chinche (2014-2015), Mauricio Marcin (Ed.), 2015
Jugador como pelota, pelota como cancha, Felipe Mujica, 2015
La disonancia de El Eco, David Miranda, 2015 (reedición 2017)
La perla de la ostra, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Gabriel Escalante and Carlos Reygadas, 2019
La conquista del Pedregal, Julio García Murillo and David Miranda, 2019
Abstracción Temporal. Museo Experimental el Eco (2010), Tobias Ostrander (Ed.), 2011
Arquitectura Emocional. Museo Experimental el Eco (2011), Macarena Hernández (Ed.), 2012
Re vista #1 (2012), Macarena Hernández (Ed.), 2013
Re vista #2 (2013), Macarena Hernández and Luis Felipe Ortega (Eds.), 2014
Re vista #3 (2014), Macarena Hernández (Ed.), 2016
Re vista #4 (2015 y 2016), Macarena Hernández (Ed.), 2018