Funcionalismo Pictórico: La propuesta de integración plástica de Mario Pani y Carlos Mérida

Arte Abierto presents Pictorial Functionalism: The proposal for plastic integration by Mario Pani and Carlos Mérida, a conversation with Rodrigo Torres Ramos, within their Derivas de Arte y Arquitectura program.

The link between urbanism and plastic arts is one of the utopian visions of architectural modernity that is perceived most effectively in the urban space of Mexico City. Important housing, education, health, culture and entertainment venues were the receptacle for interventions—moderate or monumental in size—that explored the concern to integrate art into daily life.

Stated as “plastic integration”, this strategy was used by the team of architect Mario Pani and painter Carlos Mérida to provide the multi-family homes and housing units built between 1949 and 1964 with an environment conducive to the emotional enjoyment of their inhabitants, from the incorporation of painting and sculpture to architectural volumes.

Rodrigo Torres Ramos

He is an architect from the UNAM Faculty of Architecture (2019), specialized in Museum Project Management from the UNAM Faculty of Architecture (2022). He is a researcher and curator whose work delves into the complex intersections between art and architecture in the context of Mexican modernity, with a particular emphasis on the first half of the 20th century. His academic contributions have found spaces in academic journals such as Bitácora Arquitectura, and he has been a speaker at various national and international forums on architecture and modern art, organized by institutions such as FA-UNAM and CENIDIAP in Mexico, CIAP in Argentina and the International Sculpture Center in the United States. He has been a curator, museographer, head of the education department and guest researcher at public institutions such as the Tlatelolco University Cultural Center, the Tamayo Museum, the Siqueiros Public Art Room and the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Studio Museum. He has contributed his experience to numerous curatorial and museographic projects in private galleries and independent spaces, and is the founder and director of Mirador Tlatelolco, an independent space focused on the research and exhibition of the intersections between art, design and architecture.

Derivas de Arte y Arquitectura de Arte Abierto is a program that seeks to renew our look at the architectural legacy of Mexico City. Based on a series of talks focused on rescuing the parallel stories of emblematic architectural projects and public spaces that have witnessed the variable intersection between art and architecture. In this first stage, the program mainly addresses modern architecture, based on a series of talks proposed by invited curators, architects, artists and urban planners.

With this program, ways are tested to return to architecture part of its public, experiential, collective character that is close to those of us who live in the city, recognizing in it its condition as a living archive. From these talks, circumstances, contexts and anecdotes are revealed that have been part of his sensitive memory and that complement his material memory, a relationship that often escapes documentary narratives and academic stories.

Derivas de Arte y Arquitectura proposes imaginary routes and drifts without a path for spatial rediscovery, necessary to rethink the immediate past and present of the city, in a moment of urban complexity that intensifies our habitation. The drifts take place for free, on the last Saturday of each month of 2024 at 1:00 p.m. with limited capacity.

— Arte Abierto

Photos courtesy Rodrigo Torres Ramos.