Mexico City is one of the largest and most densely populated cities in the world, a melting pot of culture, landscapes and traffic jams. The collective exhibition “Ciudad de México y Arte Digital: Luz e Imaginación” (Mexico City and Digital Art: Light and Imagination) in the Mexico City Museum walks us through several interpretations of the different stages the city formerly known as D.F. has undergone over time.
The use of light amid pitch-black rooms creates an immersive experience that invites the audience to envision the city from the past to the future, rendering the occasion an exercise in creativity and perception. The exhibition, comprised of national and international artists, begins with a representation through shadows of the earliest known civilization to inhabit the city, Tenochtitlán — the mythical island in the middle of a lake where the Aztecs settled — and their adaptation to their liquid surroundings.
Further on, lights and audiovisual installations tell the tale of the growing population in the city, exemplifying the expansion of the urban sprawl, historic moments, and the shape and divisions the city progressively acquired. Laser beams spell out the city from the ground up: the topographic composition of the land, and its later progression to a skyline. The final installation is devoted to a bitter-sweet evocation of the city and its difficult relation to the environment posing the question: what if rivers still ran through here?
The exhibition is open from Tue. to Sun. from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and runs until February 12.
The museum is located at Pino Suárez 30, Centro.
Entrance is 30 pesos. Wed. is free.