Noticias
Teotihuacan splendor will illuminate the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco
August 22, 2017After a 24 year absence, Teotihuacán and all its splendor will return to the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, United States, with the exhibition Teotihuacan: City of water, city of fire starting September 30 and running till February 11 2018.
Diego Prieto, director of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH, for its acronym in Spanish), said that this exhibition is an example of the intense cultural relationship between Mexico and the United States, particularly with the San Francisco museums, where Teotihuacán: City of the Gods had a great success in 1993, The courtly art of the ancient Mayas was presented in 2004 and Olmeca, colossal masterpieces of ancient Mexico in 2011.
“Now, Teotihuacán is again present in California with this international exhibition of 250 pieces, including the most recent findings discovered in the pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, as well as in the Temple of Quetzalcoatl and the Tunnel of the Underworld, in addition to the mural painting fragments”, he said in a press conference.
Teotihuacán, founded in the first century A.D., had an area of 20 square kilometers and a population of 100,000 inhabitants, being the most populated city in the world and the most important cultural, political and religious center of Mesoamerica declared World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987.
Alejandro Sarabia, director of the archaeological area of Teotihuacan, said that over 125 years of systematic explorations and with seven research projects being currently carried out, only 20% of that city has been studied, and there is much more to be discovered because its original name is unknown, as well as the spoken language.
Opened to the public in 1910 as an archaeological zone and with more than 3 million annual visitors, Teotihuacán will show early pieces but also its most recent findings in this great exhibition that celebrates the achievements of Mexican archeology and is centered on two elements: water and fire.
Matthew Robb, curator of the exhibition, stressed that it’s about presenting Teotihuacan as an urban system, both ceremonial spaces and daily activities, so that the public can admire the new sculpture of the fire god found in the Pyramid of the Sun, as well as images of Tláloc in pottery and ceramic pieces, monumental sculptures, mural fragments, as well as offerings.
In this sense, Miriam Newcomer, Director of Public Relations at the Museum of Fine Arts in San Francisco, celebrated that this site, one of the most visited in the United States, will receive this exhibition about Teotihuacán, after more than 20 years of absence, with some pieces that will be presented for the first time in that country.
On the other hand, Jose Enrique Ortiz Lanz, National Coordinator of Museums and Exhibitions of INAH, said that 90% of the pieces that will be presented belong to the archaeological zone of Teotihuacan and the National Museum of Anthropology and that after being exhibited in San Francisco, they will be shown at Los Angeles County Art Museum (LACMA) and there is also the possibility of arriving in the city of Tijuana.
In reciprocity for this great exhibition, said Ortiz Lanz, the museums of San Francisco and Los Angeles will send to Mexico two magnificent exhibitions, one of Buddhist art for 2018 and another of Egyptian art that will be centered in Osiris and the cult of the death, for 2019.
Meanwhile, the public will be able to enjoy a new vision in Teotihuacan: city of water, city of fire at the Young Museum of San Francisco starting September 30 and running till February 11, 2018, while in LACMA will be presented from March 25 to July 15 next year.
Mexico,Distrito Federal
