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Leonardo,Vol. 3, pp. 63-65. Pergamon Press 1970. Printed in Great Britain THE SCULPTURE ‘THE SERPENT OF EL ECO’: A PRIMARY STRUCTURE OF 1953 Mathias Goeritz* During an exhibitionof my paintings and sculptures, held in March-April 1952 at the Galeria de Arte Mexicano, I met Daniel Mont, who offered me a commission that was the most ambitious and, at the same time, the most exciting one that I had ever received: The construction of a building in the center of Mexico City, which I could design and realize with complete freedom-‘I could do exactly asIwished’. My objection that Iwas not an architect was refused by this strange Maecenas with the reply that this was preciselythe reason why he had turned to me. He wanted something different, something new-a surprise. When I asked him what the building would be for, he laughed, and said we would talk about this later. I came to the conclusion, after considerable meditation , that the building should be a living institution , a place where anyone who felt an urge to carry out a daring art project could do s w a n idea that I had been dreaming of for several years. In fact, since the days of a philosophical art movement I had initiated in July 1948 at the village of Santilla del Mar in Spain, near the Altamira Caves. This ‘school’, called the Escuela de Altamira became one of the cornerstones of modern art in Spain. Mont approved my idea and, without any other *Artist living at 112 Dr. Manuel Mazari, Cuernavacal Morelos, Mexico. (Received 11 August 1969.) limitations than those imposed by the size of the ground provided, the ‘Experimental Museum El Eco (The Echo)’ was constructed. It was once described as a poetic structure whose arrangement of passageways , walls, ceilings, openings and enclosures took one repeatedly by surprise [l]. I published an interpretation of my intentions and of the building under the title Manifestoof Emotional Architecture in September 1953 [2]. 1had foreseen a patio or courtyard as the culmination of the series of ‘emotions’ that the spectator was expected to experience while strolling through the building. This patio was intended to produce the impression of an enclosed, mysterious world, overlooked and dominated by a high, almost triangular tower that stood in one of the corners, free of the walls-a sculptural element though architectural in conception . Its yellowcolor gave the impression that it was a ray of the sun entering the white, gray and black ambiance of the patio. I tried to avoid angles of 90”in the ground plan of the building to give it an almost imperceptible asymmetry, asisfound in the structure of a face or of any living thing. There were no sensuouscurves nor keen-edged corners. To provoke a sense of tension or ‘emotion’ in the beholder, I wanted a sculptural element in the patio that offset its visual solemnity. During the winter of 1952 I devoted much of my time to the design of Fig. 1. Modelsin woodfor the sculptureat the ExperimentalMuseum El Eco at Mexico City, 1953. (Photo: J. Verde O., Mexico City.) 5 63 64 Mathias Goeritr Fig. 2. Model in woodfor the sculpture at the Experimental Museum El Eco at Mexico City. 1953 (Photo: J. Verde O., Mexico City.) Fip. 3. Viewo f the sculDture (‘PrimaryStructure’) ‘TheSerpent of’El Eco’, Mexico City, welded - steel shee;, 30 ft long x 27 ft wide x 16.5 ft high, 1953(Photo: A. Salas, Portugal.) a kind of sculpture that is now called a ‘primary structure’ because of its extreme simplicity. Since the construction of ‘El Eco’ had cost more than we had estimated, a ‘primary structure’ was my answer for a low-cost metal sculpture whose dimensions were to be about 30 ft long and 15 ft high. 1 made around fifteen different designs and of these seven small scale models were made in wood with the help of my friend, the Mexican wood carver and carpenter, Don Romualdo de la Cruz, in his workshop in Guadalajara, Jalisco, in February and March 1953(cf. Figs. 1 and 2). When I brought the Notes: The Sculpture ‘TheSerpent of El Eco’ 65 models to...

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