Highway Sculpture: The Towers of Satellite City

Leomrdo,Vol. 1, pp. 319-322. PergamonPress 1970. Printed in Great Britain In this section o f Leonardo texts not exceeding about 1200 words will be published. Notes willnot be accompaniedby abstractsand,generally,only three black and white illustrations will be allowed. Accepted Notes will bepublished more quickly than longer texts. Des textes ne dgpassant pas 1200 mots seront publids dans cette rubrique de Leonardo. Ces Notes paraitront sans rdsumks. Elles pourront &re accompagndes , de mani2regdndrale,de trois illustrationsen noir et blanc. Les Notes acceptdesserontpublidesplus rapidment que les textesplus longs. HIGHWAY SCULPTURE: THE TOWERS OF SATELLITE CITY Mathias Goeritz* Fig. 1. Free-standing, yellow-painted wall in the courtyard of the Experimental Museum, ElEco, Mexico, D.F., concrete,height 37 ft, 1953. (Photo: MarianneGoeritz.) When I was a student, I pinned postcards of the skyline of Manhattan on the wall next to my desk. While visitingItaly in 1937, I bought many photot Artist living at 112 B. Manuel Mazari, Cuernavacagraphsof the towersof Bologneand of SanGimignano and ever sincethen I have been obsessedwith the idea of vertical constructions. Only recently did I learn that Otto Freundlichalso had such an interest and that in 1936he proposed ‘TowerSculptures’[11. The firsttower sculptureI built in 1952-53 was an Morelos, Mexico. (Received 16December 1969.) 319 320 Muthias Goeritz Fig. 2. ‘Hereand There’,emotionalarchitecture series,painted wood, height 21.5 in., 1954-55. Collection of Thomas Creighton, New York. (Photo: Marianne Goeritz.) almost triangular free-standing wall about 37 ft high (cf. Fig. I). It was placed in the courtyard of the Experimental Museum El Eco in Mexico City [2]. This was followed by an exhibition of a series of projects of my so-called ‘Emotional Architecture’ at the Proteo Gallery in Mexico City in April 1955. The models I showed were mostly block-like stelae made of painted wood (cf. Fig. 2). For my first exhibition in New York, in 1956, I wrote in the catalogue: ‘I would like to have my blocks standing, enormous, like buildings, in a desert landscape so that people could see them from far away’ [3]. A visitor, who presented himself to me as a psychoanalyst, told me that my works showed quite clearly that 1was suffering from a ‘fear complex’! Mario Pani, the architect and city planner, in Mexico City, at about the same time, began plans for a new autonomous urban project on the outskirts of the capital that he called ‘Ciudad SatClite’ (Satellite City). The client was the bank, Banco lnternacional Inmobiliario, S.A., which had bought the land. A highway to this new area was already under construction. In fact, it is the main highway from the capital to the north and to the U.S.A. The area is now completely urbanized but at the time the road passed several miles of open landscape, typical of the plateau of the State of Mexico, climbed a hill and then crossed the Satellite City district from south to north. 1 was unaware of this project until the Mexican architect, Luis Barragan, in January 1957, invited me to work with him on the design of an Entrance Square that was to include a fountain. The square was to have a long, narrow, oval shape with the highway going north on one side and south on the other side. It was to be located below the crest of a hill. I immediately saw an opportunity, upon visiting the site with the architect, to demonstrate my ‘tower’obsession and proposed the construction of a group of very high columns. Three days after inspecting the site 1 was told that the client wanted to see, within 48 hours, sketches of the fountain for the square. Unfortunately, Barragan had left town and could not be reached. I gathered together some helpers. mostly students, and covered the walls of the architect’s workshop with preliminary designs of the towers. Barragan returned about two hours before the scheduled meeting with the client to be confronted with my proposal. I was greatly relieved when he accepted my ideas with enthusiasm. He then proceeded, successfully, to convince the client. Detailed work was then started on the design of Notes: Highway Sculpture: The Towers of Satellite City...