Roots / Monumental urban installation

Roots is a monumental intervention in the urban space which connected buildings, museums, squares, and archeological sites in the very heart of Mexico City. This work intervened the historical memory of public spaces and shows how society from different times has conceived differently that same space.

 

The huge artificial root (1200 meters long and 1.5 meters of diameter), was simultaneously mounted by young volunteers in 48 hours. Most of them were high school and university students from both public and private schools.

 

The temporary installation connected various iconic places in the city related to painful, violent, and even bloody historical events; episodes of repression, and social inequality. At the same time, the installation connects moments of pride, beauty and growth, all constitutive elements of the collective memory of Mexico City.

 

The extravagant and unpleasant white root disturbed the routine and familiarity of the places, widening and stretching out, climbing and penetrating in each of the places where it was installed. It provoked a wide range of reactions among spectators, critics and the media —surprise, repulsion, attraction, morbidity, rejection and amusement. The installation revealed an open, receptive and participative society reacting to this kind of artistic project in a very enthusiastic way, but it also exposed a more conservative part of society distrustful of this kind of transformations.