Cosmopolitanism in Mexican Visual Culture

3. Experiments in the Representationof National Identity: The Pavilion of Mexico in the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris a nd the Palacio de Bellas Artes

103 After independence in 1821, the Mexican elites’ previous identification with Spain took the form of a general identification with Europe and later with the United States. This resulted in imitation of European and U.S. cultural patterns . Simultaneously, Mexico’s leaders continued to look at the most developed indigenous civilizations, especially the Aztec Empire, as episodes of their own past. This double identification of the Mexican upper classes with indigenous civilizations and also with foreign powers replicated in a postcolonial era the identity dynamics of the colonial period. Architecture was shaped by and also affected these forces. Like other aspects of visual culture, buildings incorporate existing perceptions of the nation and inform future visions, thus participating in the process of national identity formation central to nationalism and associated with cosmopolitanism . After a brief introduction to relevant social and architectural developments in nineteenth-century Mexico, in this chapter I discuss two buildings of markedly different styles to demonstrate the dual footing of significant architectural commissions of the period within and outside of the nation: the Pavilion of Mexico in the 1889 exposition in Paris and Adamo Boari’s project proposal for the National Theater of Mexico (1904). The later edifice was completed by Federico Mariscal and renamed the Palacio de Bellas Artes in 1934. Despite their formal differences, both designs aspired to represent Mexico’s modernity, especially through technical infrastructure. This suggests that, like style, technology acquired semiotic values. In the unification of tradition and innovation both buildings served a similar experimental function in the representation of the nation. To facilitate comparison with the pavilion, the discussion of the theater concerns primarily Boari’s design from the Porfirian era. The two works were government commissions eventually intended to serve public functions. Although the pavilion no longer exists and the theater as built differed from F A 3 Experiments in the Representation of National Identity The Pavilion of Mexico in the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris and the Palacio de Bellas Artes 104 ■ Cosmopolitanism in Mexican Visual Culture Boari’s design, sufficient records of the construction of each edifice remain to make such an exercise possible. Commissioned during the Porfiriato (the government of Porfirio Díaz, 1877–1880, 1884–1911), the two buildings exemplify seemingly divergent forms of architectural expression (Figs. 3.1, 3.2). The first building appears to represent the local through myriad references to Mexican antiquity; at first sight the second, informed by European architectural models, engages with the international languages of classicism and art nouveau. In fact both buildings portrayed Mexico as simultaneously exotic and modern. While the pavilion advertised Mexico’s uniqueness within a Beaux-Arts design frame, the Palace of Fine Arts took the opposite approach, featuring classicizing forms sparsely seasoned with local motifs. Mydiscussionofthepaviliondemonstratesthattheuseofindigenousantiquity to represent locality in architecture was a complex international affair despite its associations with nationalism. Architectural representations of the Mexican past were first modeled abroad; these models were then adopted at FIGURE 3.1. H. Blancard, view of the Pavilion of Mexico in the Universal Exposition, Paris, France, 1889, platinum prints. Collection Centre Canadien d’Architecture/Canadian Centre for Architecture. conaculta–inah.–mex. Reproduced with permission of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. 105 ■ Experiments in the Representation of National Identity home and subsequently exported. Thus images from pre-Hispanic cultures not only signified the local but became signs of seduction to stimulate the desire of outsiders. Invoking both tradition and industrialization, the pavilion was intended to alert foreigners to the rich potential of Mexico. The Palacio de Bellas Artes displayed Mexico’s achievements in the realms of high culture and modernity by using a similar admixture. The marketing of difference was integrated into the strategies of capitalism.1 Setting During the first two-thirds of the nineteenth century Mexico was ravaged first by the wars of independence and later by civil wars and foreign interventions, including the French invasion in 1838 and the Mexican-American War (1845– 1847). From independence in 1821 to 1876, Mexicans experimented with various forms of government including two empires: one ruled by a Creole, Emperor Agustín de Iturbide I (1822–1823), and another established under French proFIGURE 3.2. Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, begun 1901 by Adamo Boari, completed 1934 by Federico Mariscal. Photo: Simon Penny. Reproduced with permission of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura, 2011. 106 ■ Cosmopolitanism in Mexican Visual Culture tection with...