The Echo, on the verge of becoming an Artistic Monument of Mexico

Founded in 1953 by the restless mind of Mathias Goeritz – one of the complete artists that Mexico has given to the world or that this country has adopted, also to show to the world –, for more than seven decades the Museo Experimental El Eco has consolidated itself as one of the nodal points in Mexico City for the cohabitation and debate between modern art, contemporary art and, of course, all those artistic practices that, although considered contemporary, explore the still possible limits of artistic creation.

Starting this Tuesday, with the publication in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF), the venue operated by the General Directorate of Visual Arts of the UNAM and located in the San Rafael neighborhood begins the procedures for the issuance of the decree by which it will be declared an Artistic Monument by the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (INBAL). This cataloging allows artistic works or real estate to be officially recognized as part of Mexico's cultural heritage. Therefore, the State is obligated to grant recognition for their artistic value and confer legal and physical protection.

With the publication of this agreement, the individuals or organizations responsible for managing the facility—in this case, UNAM—have fifteen business days to present evidence or arguments they deem relevant to the INBAL to initiate the procedure for declaring the so-called El Eco.

The publication in the DOF also comes in the context of the commemoration of the 35th anniversary of the death of Mathias Goeritz, who died on August 4, 1990, in Mexico City, at the age of 75.

Manifesto for a museum

The history of El Eco is, like its very essence, diverse. The venue itself tells us that "in 1952, during a painting and sculpture exhibition at the Galería de Arte Mexicano (GAM)—founded by Inés Amor in Mexico City—the artist Mathias Goeritz met Daniel Mont, a Mexican businessman interested in projects related to restaurants, bars, and art galleries. This patron commissioned Goeritz to build a space that would articulate a new relationship between his commercial interests and the avant-garde spirit of some cultural figures of the time, with the intention of finding something different from the established order."

Under the premise of "do whatever you want" of the aforementioned Mexican businessman, Goeritz justified the design of the enclosure under the "Manifesto of Emotional Architecture", disseminated by himself also in 1953:

"The new Museo Experimental El Eco begins its activities, that is, its experiments, with the architectural work of its own building. This work was understood as an example of an architecture whose primary function is emotion," the artist declared at the beginning of his manifesto.

And later, he explained: "In the El Eco experiment, plastic integration wasn't understood as a program, but in an absolutely natural sense. It wasn't a matter of superimposing paintings or sculptures on the building, as is often done with movie posters or carpets draped from the balconies of palaces. Rather, it was necessary to understand the architectural space as a large sculptural element, without falling into Gaudí's romanticism or the empty neoclassicism of Germany or Italy."

Throughout the 20th century, El Eco was initially an experimental museum, but not many years later, given the complexity of its maintenance, it became a restaurant, nightclub, theater, and even a venue for political activities. However, it wasn't until 2004 that UNAM acquired the building and carried out architectural restoration work on the works that permanently reside within. It reopened as a museum, fulfilling its original mission, in September 2005.

For just over two decades since its reopening, El Eco has exhibited the work of artists and explorers such as Mathias Goeritz, Ricardo Rendón, Gabriela Gutiérrez Ovalle, Georgina Bringas, Karina Peisajovich, Mariana Castillo Deball, Pablo Rasgado, Guillermo Santamarina, Iván Krassoievitch, and Beatriz Zamora, among many others.

(With information from the Museo Experimental El Eco and the book “The Reality of Fiction. El ECO by Mathias Goeritz”, 2016, by Fernando Quesada López).