OMR to Open Cultural Centre in Mexico City’s Chapultepec Forest

The 4,000 square metre space is an iconic lakeside restaurant that has been radically revamped.

OMR art gallery will open a sprawling new cultural centre on 9 February as part of Mexico City's art week.

The cultural centre is named LAGO, Spanish for 'lake'. It sits beside a large body of water in the Mexican capital's Chapultepec Forest, which is twice the size of New York City's Central Park.

The building LAGO occupies is a former restaurant that was designed by Leónides Guadarrama and completed in 1964. It's distinguished by its double-height all glass facade and a roof that forms a hyperbolic paraboloid, a doubly-curved surface like a Pringle's potato chip.

With the pandemic reducing the number of weddings and events, its three cavernous banquet rooms have been turned into large exhibition spaces. LAGO will also have room for pop-ups, classes, and workshops, its own restaurant, a café and workspace, and a cocktail bar. The food outlets will serve farm-to-table ingredients and sustainable seafood.

Entry is free, and exhibitions will be presented in both Spanish and English. The goal is to reach a broad audience, not only those already well-versed in contemporary art.

'Although it's backed by a private gallery, the idea is to create an institutional space that can rely a little bit more on free thought,' said OMR owner Cristobal Riestra. 'We don't see it as entirely our venue. Our intention is to create a space that invites collaboration.'

The first exhibition at LAGO is a partnership between LAGO's contemporary art project, named ALGO by OMR, and fellow Mexico City gallery JoséGarcía ,mx. Entitled Form Follows Energy, the exhibition will present more than 45 works—many of which will be monumental in size—by some 30 artists. They include Ana Montiel, Atelier Van Lieshout, Nina Beier, Simon Fujiwara, Mario Garcia Torres, Alicja Kwade, and Gabriel Rico.

The exhibition will be a kind of meditation beginning at the feet with a chalk mural representation of energy by Yann Gerstberger and a number of reflections on the past. It will proceed to the viscera, where marble slabs held together by Jose Dávila suggest the precariousness of the present, and then to the heart, a contemplative space that draws inspiration from the Rothko Chapel. It will end with an opening of the mind delivered by works that include an installation by James Turrell.

Riestra said the exhibition will also forge a new path through the iconic building, which is being restored to its former glory after modifications made to maximise profits in the '90s.

'Previously, it was a space divided into little rooms, but today you can see the intention of the architect, this modern masterpiece of architecture that was lost in time,' he said.

OMR turns 40 in 2023, and the gallery said this is by far the largest-scale project they've ever done.

LAGO's second exhibition is scheduled for August 2022.

In addition to the opening of LAGO, Mexico City Art Week 2022 will also see the return of art fair Zona Maco. —[O]