Xaltiolli is the headquarters of the University’s Fund for Ancient Aboriginal Art, consisting of more than 15,000 pieces

Do you already know the new space of the UNAM Tlatelolco Cultural Center? its name Xaltiolli Yes, the Interpretation Center which opened on November 30th; It is a place that allows us to reflect and rethink the art, memories and resistance that have existed in our country throughout history.

This center takes its name from the word Xaltilolli, which comes from the Nahuatl geographical name for Tlatelolco: “the place on the hill of the earth.” It is a project of constructing meanings on the basis of social memory and cultural resistance.

Xaltiollio Covering nearly 1,000 square meters of CCUT on two levels, among its objectives are to provoke problems and question the official version of art and history (setting the subject as a key factor), as well as to enhance and revitalize memory, provoke thought and purposeful action to change our reality.

The origin of the Xaltilolli dates back to the collection of 15,200 objects that make up the university’s Fund for Ancient Indigenous Art. This collection brings together 3,003 pre-Hispanic objects from CCUT and 12,317 objects from the UNAM Archaeological Art Collection, which were hitherto preserved in the cellars of the University of Contemporary Art (MUAC).

The pieces come from various private collections, formed prior to 1972, when the Federal Antiquities, Archaeological, Artistic, and Historic Districts Act, which establishes the nation’s ownership of archaeological assets, was passed. They were collected and subsequently transferred to UNAM by art lovers interested in learning and studying the cultures that produced them.

Translation Center

While the museum focuses on curating and exhibiting the collection, the Interpretation Center allows visitors to ask their own questions and come to their own conclusions.

Its purpose is to create emotional and intellectual connections with the submitted content. thus, Xaltiolli It is a space designed for human diversity that proposes open and free narratives.

The project is built on two axes of space-time: Tlatelolco as a symbolic site for Mexico City’s historical memory, and indigenous art, from its origins to the present day. In both cases, the collective memory and the different forms of cultural resistance that people and societies experience are intertwined.

exhibition space

This academic and exhibition proposal arises from a collaborative project of some 40 researchers from UNAM, which has four programmes: the Xaltilolli Gallery, an Academic and Public Program, and the University Fund for Ancient Indigenous Art (Consists of more than 15,000 pieces donated to the UNAM Archaeological Collection) and a documentation center that will integrate diverse communities into long-term operations. The tour covers periods such as the Viceroyalty, the 19th century, the 20th century, and the contemporary period.

The preparatory room is made up of units Memory and stamina And Cosmovision (Mexica). The part dedicated to Tlatelolco consists of nuclei such as origin and foundations, moments of crisis, alliances and tensions, identities and resistance, communities of Tlatelolco and art in Tlatelolco.

For its part, the room devoted to art addresses issues of uses and abuses of cultural heritage, art as identity, art as message, art as memory, and art as resistance. The last section of this section is devoted to The Florentine Codex.

The tour ends with a conclusion, visualized as a space for reflection.

The things shown in Xaltiolli Designed to be approached through different ways of understanding, experience and an informational approach, so the tour contains a combination of digital, written, tactile, audio, mechanical and entertainment resources, within which a flexible and intuitive environment is created. For all people.

It features a large-scale model explaining the lands of Nonoalco-Tlatelolco in five of its different historical phases, as well as 3D maps, 3D projections, and mockups.

The Center displays works from both the University Fund for Ancient Indigenous Art and other works ordered on loan to the National Museum of Anthropology, the Provincial Museum of Puebla, the Archaeological District of Teotihuacan, the Museum of Anthropology of Xalapa, the Templo Mayor Museum, the Tlalnepantla Cathedral, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, and the ICA Foundation, as well as private groups and artists. It will also contain copies of works of various origins, located both in Mexico and abroad. In the latter case there is a clone of the sunstone.

Contemporary works that will also be part of the CCUT collection, created by artists such as Mazenett y Quiroga, Arturo Hernández Alcázar, Antonio Bravo, Balam Bartolomé́, Adam Wiseman, Citlali Fabián, Lukas Avendaño, Maruch Santiz Gómez, Octavio Aguiada, and Mauro Aguiada, can also be seen. , Zapantras Negras, Francisco Huaruco, Ruben Canol, Eric Lopez, Ricardo Martinez, Esther Gonzalez, Sebastian and Francisco Ibez.

University Fund for Ancient Aboriginal Art

Despite the creation of a new collector’s fund, which may grow with new additions, the distinction between the groups that gave rise to it will be preserved: Stavenhagen, Molina Lopez, Ricardo Martinez, Spratling, Corduri, Campfer, Lindau, Roche, Ricardo Hecht and Carlos Mugel.

Its opening is part of the Mexico 500 program through which UNAM celebrates five centuries of the historical period known as the Conquest, this new exhibition proposed by Tlatelolco seeks to depart a little from the typical mechanics of a traditional museum, as it wants to provide a space for collective criticism and reflection on the arts, memories and resistance.

If you want to know what else you can find in this newly opened space, on November 30, we are waiting for you from Thursday to Sunday, from 11 am to 5 pm, at CCU Tlatelolco, located on Ricardo Flores Magón 1, Nonoalco – Tlatelolco, Ciudad of Mexico. Inquiry: mexico500.unam.mx.

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