Curatorial Text | Credits:  FRIDA MOUCHLIAN 

TANAT is a multidisciplinary project founded in 2019 by Mexican architect Diego Rivero Borrell, whose practice joins architecture, art, and research. Within this last category, the office has developed a deep interest in the radical modification of cities and the scarcity of natural resources caused by systemic processes of colonization and extractivism.

The exhibition Escribir un paisaje (Writing a Landscape) emerges from these concerns. Water, an element that has been particularly invisible during Modernity both in urban planning and in domestic space, becomes the center of the proposal.

Through a mysterious circuit of canals and deposits made from recycled elements, TANAT composes a landscape to activate an oneiric and thoughtful game in which times and discursivities are overlapped: Is it memory, future, or simply a work of fiction?

WRITING A LANDSCAPE | Credits: TANAT team 

As part of the cultural programming at LIGA, Space for architecture in Mexico City, Mexican architecture studio TANAT was invited to design and build its 39th exhibition. 

The project titled Writing a Landscape stems from a series of past and ongoing research projects undertaken by TANAT whose work has questioned human relationships with the natural landscape, recently focusing on water landscapes. 

Pre-hispanic Mexico City - Tenochtitlan- held a sacred relationship with water, representing it at the top of Templo Mayor, as a central element in human and natural landscapes. After the conquest, colonization, and 20th century modernity, the lake was drained and water in the city was covered and contained. The “city built upon the lake” ceased to be, and with it, water became invisible and transactional. In consequence, Mexico City has been facing an urgent water crisis, marked by periods of drought, but contrasted by extreme flooding during the rainy season.  

In response, TANAT's installation at LIGA re-centers water both physically and symbolically. The project begins outside the gallery with a round, oxidized iron plate extending onto the street, inviting curiosity about its connected canal.

Inside, the gallery is transformed into a dynamic landscape of soil, forming mountains and valleys. The sound of dripping water permeates the space, flowing through canals that connect to the external plate, which acts as a rainwater collector. Water accumulates in a central iron element, reminiscent of a volcano, amidst the soil.

The suspended canals and objects are carefully balanced with living and inanimate objects, their subtle movement captures the oneiric mind and ignites conversation on dichotomies akin to human relationships with landscapes. Additional elements throughout the space enhance the imaginative experience, prompting reflections on the ever-changing environment.

Writing a Landscape is an ongoing project, it serves as an oneiric and surrealist representation of Mexico City´s shifting landscape. Rather than composing the project with a strictly defined vision, the space at Liga has been written by the city's “trash landscape”. Since the beginning of the year, TANAT's team has sourced materials—discarded iron, concrete, and wood—from junkyards and salvage stores around Mexico City. These found materials have been reimagined and repurposed to create the intricate system of canals and deposits.