Espacio Escultórico de la UNAM: the ring of stone on Mexico City's sea of lava

In the heart of the Ciudad Universitaria, the campus of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in the borough of Coyoacán, there is a ring of stone that many visitors to the capital never put on their itinerary. It is called the Espacio Escultórico, and it is one of the most ambitious works of public art in the country: a circular platform of volcanic stone, about 120 metres in outer diameter, along which prismatic modules with rectangular bases are aligned. The exact number varies depending on the source (64 prisms is the figure most often cited), but the effect is that of a regular crown enclosing something entirely irregular: at the centre, a field of solidified lava from the Pedregal remains exposed, the flow that thousands of years ago covered this part of the valley.

The work and its creators

The work was inaugurated on 23 April 1979, to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the university's autonomy. It grew out of an idea by the sculptor Federico Silva, who from 1977 worked together with a group of artists from the Mexican geometric sculpture movement: Helen Escobedo, Manuel Felguérez, Mathias Goeritz, Hersúa and Sebastián. The aim was to integrate geometric sculpture with a natural environment, and here that environment is the Ecological Reserve of the Pedregal de San Ángel, the area protecting the vegetation that grew over the lava rock. The contrast is stark: the grey, orthogonal modules on one side, the twisted forms of the cooled magma on the other. At over 2,200 metres of altitude the light is harsh and the sky feels very close, and walking along the ring the whole ensemble can recall an ancient ceremonial enclosure more than a twentieth-century work.

Crossing the lava

It is worth stepping down from the platform and crossing the lava at the centre, but with care: the rock takes on jagged shapes and at times you have to leap from one boulder to the next. Wear closed shoes, bring sunscreen and water, because there is virtually no shade. Admission to the area is free. The main complex, however, keeps to a schedule: Monday to Friday, roughly from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. (some sources give opening at 8 a.m.), while on weekends it stays closed. The university also runs free guided tours on Wednesdays, with prior registration by writing to campuscu@unam.mx.

Getting there

Getting there is simpler than its low profile might suggest. The most convenient way is the Pumabús, the campus's free internal shuttle service: from the Universidad metro station (Línea 3) take Ruta 3, which stops right at the Espacio Escultórico station. Alternatively you can get off at the Centro Cultural Universitario stop on Línea 1 of the Metrobús and continue on foot for about 900 metres along the Circuito and then onto Mario de la Cueva, the street with no house number onto which the work faces. Those who prefer to walk from the Universidad metro should reckon on about two kilometres, roughly twenty-five minutes.

Nearby

The Espacio Escultórico is part of a larger area that includes the Centro Cultural Universitario, with concert halls, theatres and other monumental open-air sculptures, as well as the MUAC, the campus's contemporary art museum. You can therefore fold the visit into a full day devoted to the Ciudad Universitaria, whose historic core was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It remains one of those places where art, geology and ecology converge on a single point, minutes from the city's traffic and yet almost never crowded.