ArtCurious Virtual Vacation: Mexico City's Museums
Get ready for an immersive journey through Mexico City's vibrant art scene with THREE ALL-NEW EPISODES! Join us as we explore the cultural richness of this colorful capital city, from ancient artifacts to cutting-edge contemporary art. Today’s episode: Mexico City’s Incredible Museums!
🖼️ Highlights Include:
A private tour of the National Anthropology Museum, delving into Mexico's ancient civilizations and cultural heritage.
An insider's look at Museo Jumex, showcasing contemporary artworks from Mexican and international artists.
Discovering the avant-garde exhibitions at MUAC and Museo Rufino Tamayo, pushing the boundaries of artistic expression.
Exploring the historical and contemporary works at Museo de arte Carrillo Gil, providing a diverse and enriching art experience.
🌟 Join Us on the Adventure: Whether you're an art enthusiast or simply curious about Mexico City's cultural treasures, this virtual vacation promises to inspire and captivate. Stay tuned for our upcoming episode and embark on a journey of discovery with us!
🎨 Exclusive Travel Opportunities: Don't miss out on our upcoming excursions to Kansas City and Bentonville this spring. Visit arrangementsabroad.com for details and registration, and stay tuned for more episodes on Mexico City. Until then, stay curious! 🌎✨
If you’d like to donate to ArtCurious, please feel free to do so here.
Today’s Sponsor
This episode is supported by In the Making, an original podcast brought to you by Adobe Express, the all-in-one content creation app included in your Creative Cloud membership. Search for In the Making in your podcast player. My thanks to In the Making and Adobe Express for their support.
Episode Credits:
Music by Storyblocks. Logo by Vaulted.co.
Episode Transcript
Well, that was a nice little break. Did you miss me?
Ah, let me just set my backpack down. Now, where did I put my travel journal? Right, here it is. Ever since ArtCurious the podcast effectively shuttered back in December, I’ve been busy. Not only were we dealing with the general annual madness of the holiday season, but I was also hard at work preparing for lectures and speaking events in Arkansas and Virginia, working on the writing for a graphic nonfiction project currently in process with my friend, Sean Fitzgibbon--more on that soon, and hi, Sean!-- and of course working on that second book that I’ve been talking about for a bit here. That’s the big one, and my rough draft is due later this spring. But I’ve also been on the move. Most crucially, I just returned from a week in Mexico City as a lecturer with the tour organization Arrangements Abroad. And you know what? I think you should enjoy a little virtual vacation with me as I share some of my favorite highlights over the next three episodes.
Sound pretty good to you? Great. So buckle in for our ArtCurious Virtual Vacation: Mexico City. And if virtual just isn’t enough for you, then you’ll want to join me for some upcoming excursions. I’ve got one trip open for registration now, which will be a domestic one, hitting up Kansas City, MO and Bentonville, AK later this spring, and two international trips coming up this fall-- more soon on those as well, but check out arrangementsabroad.com and likemindstravel.com, or just stay posted to my website--artcuriouspodcast.com.
In the meantime-- let’s deplane and hit our first stop on this weeklong jaunt through Mexico’s colorful capital city. Today’s virtual vacation is all about MUSEUMS.
We arrive in Mexico City in the middle of the afternoon--not too shabby, and the flights for most of us, coming from the U.S., were only a few hours long. Just enough time for us to taxi in from the airport to our hotel, the JW Marriott in Polanco. It's like the posh, chic heart of the city. Picture this: tree-lined streets, upscale boutiques, fancy restaurants, and some seriously stunning architecture. It's got that whole vibe of sophistication mixed with a bit of historical charm. You'll see a lot of well-dressed folks strolling around, probably heading to one of those trendy cafes or designer stores. Plus, it's got this cosmopolitan feel, with a mix of locals and expats living the high life. It's definitely a spot where you can indulge in some luxury living and people-watching, so it’s a great place to choose as our home base for the week.
Not that we’re settling in right away-- no way. We’ve already got some fun waiting for us! The sun’s starting to set and all across the city, museums are shuttering for the night-- but not the National Anthropology Museum. For us, the museum is staying open late for a private tour. Talk about an incredible privilege of this tour--the access it provides. The Anthropology Museum is, like many of the world’s great museums, a time machine, one that transports you through Mexico's incredible history and diverse cultures. The building itself is a masterpiece, with its striking modern architecture surrounded by lush greenery of Chapultepec Park. Inside, you're greeted by an overwhelming collection of artifacts, from ancient Mayan sculptures to Aztec artifacts and everything in between. It's like a crash course in Mexican anthropology and archaeology, and you can easily spend hours wandering through its halls, soaking in the rich heritage. Tonight, though, we’ve got the most enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide to take us through, and he provides us with a look at some of the magnificent highlights of this impeccable collection. First up, there's the colossal Aztec Sun Stone, also known as the Stone of the Sun or the Aztec Calendar. It's this massive, intricately carved stone disk that's just mind-blowing to behold. It's believed to have been created around 1479 CE, but might be even older than that-- roughly 500 to 550 years old. And this thing is huge-- set atop a large plinth, it is almost 12 feet in diameter and it weighs approximately 24 tons. That’s one serious stone, filled with intricate carvings depicting various elements of Aztec cosmology, mythology, and calendrical systems.
And you don’t want to miss the tomb replica of Pakal the Great, who was a prominent ruler of the ancient Mayan city-state of Palenque, located in present-day Chiapas, Mexico. Pakal ruled Palenque from around 615 CE until his death in 683 CE. The replica tomb is based on the actual burial chamber discovered within the Temple of the Inscriptions in Palenque by Mexican archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier in 1952. Pakal's tomb is one of the most significant archaeological finds in Mesoamerica, renowned for its intricate carvings and the richness of its contents. Trust me, these two pieces alone will leave you in awe of Mexico's ancient civilizations.
This private tour has whetted your museum appetite, and after a delicious dinner and a restful evening, you’re up and at ‘em the next morning, ready for more. And Mexico City has no lack of incredible museums and cultural institutions for us. After the ancient wonders of yesterday, you’re ready for something that’s of this moment. It’s time to bus over to the Museo Jumex, one of the city’s best museums of contemporary art. Luckily, it’s not a major trek for us-- it’s in our own neighborhood, after all, this striking building with clean lines and a sleek vibe. Jumex is named after the Jumex group, one of Mexico’s largest producers of fruit juices. The Group’s founder, Eugenio López Alonso, opened the museum to support and promote contemporary art in Mexico. Inside, you'll find an impressive collection of contemporary art from both Mexican and international artists-- everything from paintings and sculptures to installations and multimedia works. It's like a creative playground, where you can immerse yourself in all kinds of thought-provoking and cutting-edge artwork. When our group visits, we take notice of the fact that several of the works on view require our overt participation: a stationary bike that powers a nearby lightbulb, a weblike series of baskets begging for visitors to sit inside; even an egg--yes, an egg-- standing upon a small pedestal, and the goal is that two museum-goers should attempt to kiss the egg simultaneously, leaving it upright on its stand… or else, SPLAT. The collection is smart, high-caliber, well-curated, and fun: all good things in art, in my humble opinion.
If you’re into contemporary art, the Museo Jumex is just the start of our adventure. Depending on your curiosity, you might head over to MUAC (the University Museum of Contemporary Art), on the campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. With its avant-garde architecture and dynamic exhibitions, MUAC stands as a beacon of contemporary art in the bustling metropolis. The museum's primary focus is on showcasing cutting-edge contemporary art from both Mexican and international artists, offering visitors a diverse and thought-provoking experience. From multimedia installations to experimental performances, MUAC continually pushes the boundaries of artistic expression while fostering dialogue and critical thinking about contemporary issues. This is where we’ll see some of our most avant-garde exhibitions, all with a special focus on Latin American artists. What about the Museo Rufino Tamayo? That one is back close to our hotel, too, and was opened by the artist of the same name, a key member of the mexican modernists. Tamayo’s paintings themselves are awesome-- and we can see some of his murals when we head over to the Palace of Fine Arts, which we’ll discuss on another day-- but one of Rufino Tamayo’s goals was to share his love of contemporary art with the world-- and what better way to do that than to open his museum up to artists from all around the globe? The Museo Tamayo, then, showcases works of global contemporary interest. On our visit, we’ll see that the museum has been taken over by two exhibitions-- one by the Kosovo artist Petrit Halilaj, a new artist to me, and the second from Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartensson, an old favorite of mine.
Oof, what’s that? You’re a little worn out from all this amazing art-looking? No worries, I’ve got you. Let’s try a smaller museum, something that you can enjoy for an hour or two without overextending yourself. How about visiting the Museo de arte Carrillo Gil? Named after founders, the painter and collector Alvar Carrillo Gil and his wife Carmen Tejero de Carrillo Gil, the museum houses a diverse collection of artworks spanning various mediums and styles. Its primary focus lies in promoting Mexican and Latin American artists, providing a platform for their work to be showcased and celebrated. And it’s not only a contemporary art museum, but has historical works that back up into the earliest years of the twentieth century, scratching that itch that many of us have for some of the biggest names of Mexican modernism: Jose Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Diego Rivera, among many others. What’s neat about this collection is that it is routinely curated and reinstalled to present its historical collection alongside contemporary works that have been newly acquired: a nice way to see older items with a fresh perspective.
That’s…. That’s been a lot of art, right? Believe me, I know. Let’s take the rest of the night off and we’ll start fresh in the morning with one more museum. But don’t worry, this one is going to be a totally different experience than the one we had so far. And if you’re anything like me, it’s going to be a major highlight of our time here in Mexico City.
Thanks for joining me on our virtual vacation to Mexico City. Everything I mentioned in today’s brief episode is based on my actual trip to Mexico with Arrangements Abroad, who curates creative, luxurious holidays across the globe, many of whom specialize in the kinds of artistic and cultural experiences mentioned herein. Now, we did not go to these museums in one single day, but we did visit each of them over our week together, and let me tell you, it was an absolute thrill. Please join me on our next exclusive adventure to Kansas City and Bentonville this spring by going to arrangementsabroad.com-- I’ll be sharing some great stories and informational tidbits with you there.
But we’re not done with Mexico City! Not even close. Look for two more bonus episodes for our Virtual Vacation to the city over the next few weeks. Until then, stay curious.
