2013 Carnegie International | BLOG

Like a Mayan pyramid, the Anahuacalli Museum rises from a dense, old neighborhood in the southern environs of Mexico City, a good 1.5-hour taxi ride from your next destination (unless it’s Frida Kahlo’s house and collection a short distance away). Anahuacalli houses Diego Rivera’s collection of pre-Hispanic art and artifacts in glorious display cases spread across mostly small dark rooms made of volcanic stone with mosaicked stone ceilings (and some floors) that weave together symbols of the Teotihuacan culture with the occasional hammer and sickle. Rivera with his friend, the architect and muralist, Juan O’Gorman conceived of the design, although Rivera didn’t live to see its completion. This spring, Kurimanzutto gallery hosted an exhibition of British artist Sarah Lucas’s bodily assemblages made of mostly nylon pantyhose and cotton stuffing contorted and placed on pedestals of stacked adobe bricks, all sourced in Mexico. It’s hard to imagine anything looking bad in Anahuacalli—the name means “House of Energy,” and the feeling of walking through its many halls as you ascend its four floors is one of effervescence met with an air of solemnity.