Anahaucalli

I should subtitle this post 'or how I get my bearings back'. After about a month's hiatus due to too much work and too little interest in using a computer when I was not, I finally had a chance to get out and explore the city in ways more wholesome than New Year's debauchery. On a whim, I struck out for Anahaucalli, Diego Rivera's ambitious obsession in his golden years to make a permanent home for his extensive collection of per-Columbian artifacts. It is not so easy to find, especially since you have to transfer at Tasquena from the super frequent, very fast Metro to the lazy tren ligero, and then trek out a few blocks.
The architecture is pseudo Mayan, utilizing elements of the talud-tablero , and the complex is composed of a few low slung service buildings organized around a court with that massive hunking block holding down the south side (again, a scheme not unfamiliar to the Mexica). The plan is square, and the (sometimes) vertical distribution of elements, particualrly the windows, indicates some western infulence, but on the whole, it's really more an architecture of individual fantasy (I imagine Rivera dreamed himself a god in a place like this).Inside the tone is heavy, dark, particularly because this is surprising a load bearing masonry structure. It must be a nice place to be on a very hot day, which int turned out to be, although by the late afternoon, as always, things cool down to a brief moment of perfection before the wind picks up. Anyway, as you can see, there are oodles and oodles of pre-Colombian artifacts (Mayan, Aztec, Toltec, etc.) The tour guide (all visits are guided, no exceptions!) mentioned there were over 70,000...mostly small of course, but charming nonetheless. The planta baja (lower floor) is softly lit by marble glazing like the Beinecke at Yale. Unfortunately, as is the case in most museums I've seen in Mexico, there is no subtly or grace in the way the exhibits are displayed and lit so whatever the quality of the natural light may have been was largely unoticable under the high wattage of the unnatural light. Because each room in the entire complex is topped off with a unique ceiling mosaic, and they are highly illuminated, this is an issue in each and every room. It's a delimma between the architecture which creates an atmosphere demanding a certain experience and the need for artifacts to be displayed clearly and neutrally. Here I think that the architecture is just square enough to work out ok, and given the nature of the artifacts, the mood implied is a decent on for viewing.And there were some other temporary exhibits of interest, like the dragons populating the plaza.
And this contraption of cow bones made in the form of human skeletons which could be operated with an organ , a micro-nightmare version of David Byrne's Battery Building installation from last summer.Oh, and there is a terrace just below the pyramidal roof which affords rather excellent views of the mountains (when the haze permits) and the sunset. Next week, I think I'm going to get into those mountains.