Next Friday, May 30 will open the immersive experience: Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera: Elephant and Paloma, A first level proposal. Great cultural scenarios are adopting immersive exhibitions to offer attendees a different contact with artists. Tokyo, New York and London have approached their audience through this fusion between technology, dialogues and unique creations.
In Guatemala, the Mexico Embassy dedicated two years to the creation of this project, which will see the light. The doors will be open for approximately three months for free, to welcome those who are interested in the artistic life of Frida Kahlo and Diego Riverawho, in life, were controversial and have managed to consecrate themselves as icons of modern art of Mexico, Latin America and the world.
The facilities of the Embassy, located in the 2nd. Avenida 7-57, zone 10, were conceived 21 years ago by Mexican architects Teodoro González de León and Francisco Serrano. This week they change their facade in honor of their special guests: Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. The orange and yellow vibrant colors stand out, which are mixed with Rivera murals and with the self -portrait that Kahlo made of both. Visits can be from Monday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The couple was called with different affectionate nicknames. Among them were “elephant” and “dove”, although they also used “toad” and “small”, to mention some ..
Why see the immersive experience of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera?
In five points we highlight the most impressive of this open exhibition for people from the age of 13:
1. A gallery to explore in a traditional way the best of the two painters
Upon entering the embassy, you will find the José Gorostiza gallery. Through a selection of pieces, replicas of the most symbolic works of the artists are presented. They add more than 60 pieces, says Doris García, curator of the exhibition.
Among them are The wounded deer (1946), The lost desire (1939), Dorothy Hale suicide (1939), Frida and Diego Rivera (1931), Self -portrait with Chambergo (1907), as well as The dream of a Sunday afternoon at the Central Alameda (1947).
Regularly, the works of the artists are found in art or social networks and, although they are replicas, there is a different perception when seeing them in their original size or in the immersive project, where they even have movement, dialogues and music.
2. In the intimacy of artists
The project focuses andn the artistic life of Diego y Fridanot in your personal life, although it is not easy to separate them completely. Throughout the exhibition you can read famous phrases, as well as details of your intimate life. The introductory room simulates the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Museum House.
A replica of the bed is exhibited where Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo and Calderón spent hours of rest due to the accident that left her prostrated for a long time. Also a replica of the study of Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de Rivera and Barrientos, with the brushes and colors that characterized the artist. Both spaces are a loan from the school of children Painters Frida Kahlo.
3. The immersive experience
The project has an approximate investment of US $ 50 thousand (more than Q380 thousand). Willy Posadas, director of Antigua Viva, in charge of the production of digital art, explains that the work represented about 10,000 hours by a creative team composed of Daniel Pinto, Francisco Sandoval and Alex Hentze, among other Guatemalan talents.
The immersive experience has a duration of 18 minutes. The Posadas team prepared a narrative script so that the entire exhibition had a visual and auditory unit.
“The complexity of a project like this begins with obtaining the rights to use and manipulate these works, which implied a logistics that was managed by the Mexico Embassy in Guatemala,” says Posadas.
It highlights the importance of museum collections integrating technology into traditional spaces. “We are very happy to have created one of the first immersive experiences of this type for artists as great as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo,” he says.
Antigua Viva, based in Antigua Guatemala, has also developed the Festival de la Luz, whose second edition will be held next July.
4. More of technical work
“Little by little, what we want is that Guatemala, and in particular Antigua Guatemala, becomes the Innovation Center in Latin America, where new trends occur, especially in art and heritage,” says Posadas.
The Luis Cardoza y Aragón Auditorium, with capacity for 180 people, was intervened in its 720 square meters to give life to the exhibition Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera: Elephant and Paloma.
16 high -power projectors are used, of 8 thousand lumens each, with short shooting lenses, as well as a hardware and software adapted to the needs of the project. The team was imported from China to adapt to the auditorium space.
The idea is to leave the infrastructure so that artists continue to lead the digital and artistic field.
5. The Guatemalan Rina Lazo and his work with Rivera
During the exhibition it also stands out to a Guatemalan who was very close to the couple. In 1946, RINA LAZO (1923-2019) He was an assistant to Diego Rivera. The renowned muralist also met Frida Kahlo. Lazo worked approximately ten years with Rivera.
In the exhibition there is a mural that they painted together for the Hotel del Prado in 1947. “I arrived in Mexico in 1946, winning a scholarship to come to study painting. I crossed a political border but I never felt alien to this great country that is Mexico; it was at the time when mural painting was one of the most important cultural activities in the country, the painters had participated as leaders of the synered and still perceived the socialist education of the socialist education. Cardinal era. Your fortune to learn and participate in this important artistic movement with the largest painter of the twentieth century, Mexican Diego Rivera, andn The fresh dream of a Sunday afternoon in the Central Alameda, one of the most beautiful and complete mural works that he made, painted in the dining room of the old Hotel del Prado and that after the 1985 earthquake was transferred to the Diego Rivera mural museum“Loz said in a document called My participation in Mexican muralism, Published in the Autonomous University of Mexico.