Exhibition - Unlake City at the Aedes Gallery Berlin

“Unlake City - Where there was a lake now there is a city” is the title of the exhibition running until 21 March 2017 at the Aedes Gallery in Berlin. An opportunity to learn a lot about Mexico City and the urban planning projects of this Mexican megalopolis.


During our recent stay in Berlin, we were lucky enough to get to the exhibition “Unlake City - Where there was a lake now there is a city” at the Aedes Gallery.
The exhibition is curated by Miquel Adrià and Alejandro Hernandéz Gálvez and as you can work out from the title, it is all about the process of transformation that took place over the centuries, in the valley that was once crossed by rivers and is so connected to water that in 1602 it was compared to Venice, with the small difference that Venice was built on the sea, and Mexico City on a lake. 
What used to be “a lake”, which then became an “unlake”, due to the process of urban development that caused the lake to disappear, and “now there is a city”. For this reason, the exhibition is divided into two sections. 
In the centre of the first part, visitors are welcomed by a topographic model of the river valley that presents the current hydrological conditions in relation to the urban context, created by architect Elias Cattan from Taller13. The theme of water as a vital element lies at the centre of Cattan's research. He also worked with Greenpeace and is one of the initiators of “Picnic en el Río” aiming to raise public awareness of the great potential that rivers have to create a more liveable urban context, as detailed in “Recovering La Piedad River”, one of the projects showcased.
Old maps and modern maps, plans, photographs and a video help showcase the city's development across the last 500 years and into the future. This is where we find the project “La Quebradora Water Park” an idea about water management put forward by UNAM and Taller Capital of Loreta Castro Reguera that we'll be looking into further at another time.
The second section of the exhibition opens with a video explaining the city's transformation process in connection with historical events, such as the arrival of the Spanish and the 1968 Olympics as well as the devastating earthquakes that struck Mexico City, all with reference to present and past waterways. In this section there are also video interviews with key figures of the urban planning and architectural operations in recent years showing an overview of the most significant operations, and including names like TENarquitectos and Gaeta&Springall, just to name a couple. The individual projects are explained in detail through texts, photographs, and models.
“Unlake City - Where there was a lake now there is a city” opens our eyes to Mexico City and gives us a clearer understanding of certain dynamics of its urban planning, in addition to the great potential and desire of the biggest megalopolis in Latin America to head down the path of sustainability.

Christiane Bürklein

Exhibition: “Unlake City - Where there was a lake now there is a city”
from 28 January to 21 March 2017
curated by Miquel Adrià and Alejandro Hernandéz Gálvez
developed as part of the dual year between Mexico and Germany
Images: Courtesy of Aedes Gallery
Credits: 
PRESENT
01_Culture Fair 2014, Project_ Productora, Photographers_ Luis Gallardo – LGM Studio 
02_Culture Fair 2015, Project_ MMX ,Photographer_ Rafael Gamo
03_Culture Fair 2016, Project_ AMET. Photographer_ Jaime Navarro & Rafael Gamo
04_Monumento a la Revolución. Photographer_ C13Studio
FUTURE
05_Mercado de la Merced, Project_ Team 730
06_MUNET _ Museo Nacional de Energía y Tecnología, Project_ Ten Arquitectos
07_Viaducto_ Río Piedad, Project_ Taller 13
Find out more: http://www.aedes-arc.de/cms/aedes/de/programm?id=17231357