MODERN MUSE

@jorgepedro

@ashtariphoto

Mexico City’s artistic scene goes far beyond its most celebrated daughter, Frida Kahlo, whose distinctive self-portraits appear on everything from notebooks to coffee cups the world over. Filmmaker Luis Buñuel and painter Leonora Carrington made their names here, and Seville poet Juan de la Cueva wrote of ‘six things of excellent beauty’ in the city of the 16th century: casas, calles, caballos, carnes, cabellos y criaturas bellas – houses, streets, horses, meats, hair and beautiful creatures. World Capital of Design in 2018, Mexico City’s appeal lies also in the creativity of its people. You can see it in public design: our Metro icons, designed in the late ’60s by Lance Wyman, and Alameda Central, the first urban park in the Americas. You’ll find creative Mexico City in some surprising places, not just its inspiring museums and traditional crafts, but also in its bars, restaurants, down dimly-lit streets, and among peeling façades.

Stop 1: FOR A ONE-OFF SPACE

Mexico City combines all kinds of architecture. A half-hour taxi ride along, a vibrant pink building designed as a private home. Located at the side of the property, in its old stables, is the cultural centre  . Its name means ‘place between stones’ in Nahuatl, one of the languages of the Uto-Aztecan people, because the property was built on a bed of volcanic rock.