What would the interior of Luis Barragán's house look like if he were still alive and replaced all the artworks? Elena Filipovic started with that question when she was invited to curate Estancia FEMSA 's new exhibition at Casa Barragán: Emissaries of Things Abandoned by the Gods. To suppose a world in which the architect would replace Piccaso, Goeritz and Edward Weston with contemporary works was a provocative enough exercise in principle, which also had a complex execution. How to replace works so meticulously chosen?
Since the death of its creator in 1988, Casa Barragán remained intact. Each piece of furniture and object was safeguarded by the foundation created to protect that heritage so deliberately arranged; it is well known that Barragán chose the order of each element thinking about the experience it would offer to the inhabitant -imagining the house without a painting would be like imagining a face without an eye. Now, all the original artworks (paintings, photographs, images, sculptures and artifacts) have been temporarily replaced by their contemporary equivalents: more than 50 pieces by 16 artists from around the world.
These substitute "emissaries" are not circumstantial. Each one represents a meticulous choice of the curator thinking about the formal and conceptual correspondences they have with the original works, and that is perhaps the most complex part of the process of Emissaries of Things Abandoned by the Gods. Walking through the house thinking about each decision of the architect and finding contemporary mirrors for the religious icons, the busts of beautiful men or the crucifixes perhaps has the feeling of walking through an imperturbable sanctuary in which any change seems like an alien invasion.
Elena Filipovic said that the house is so particular, almost sacred, that she felt that any gesture might be too much (or might not be enough). Indeed, the result is controversial but decidedly inspiring. Emissaries of things abandoned by the gods manages to completely change the course of a house that had changed so much in over 30 years.
Despite the freedom of such a speculative exercise, Filipovic established some rules. The recent (or specially fabricated) artworks were to occupy the same site as the originals and were to be (whenever possible) of the same scale. In addition, all the original artworks and artifacts were temporarily relocated to Barragan's studio, on a structure conceived for that purpose by AGO and Sala Hars.
Walking through the house one finds emissaries in every room: more than 20 private collections, museums and galleries from around the world lent work for this exhibition. An isothermal, hand-painted metal blanket by Pamela Rosenkranz replaced the crisp gold-covered Goeritz in the foyer; a piece by Heinz Peter Knes takes the place of an Edward Weston nude; and so, throughout the disrupted sanctuary, Emissaries of things abandoned by the gods are in the strangest of places. Visit the new exhibition at Casa Barragan for an improbable tour.
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