In the second section of Chapultepec Park there are some architecturally interesting features. I used to enjoy looking at them when walking my dog, and even show them to people who were visiting me. However I was never exactly certain about exactly what structure they were. I knew it had to do something with the water supply system of Mexico City, that they were built around the middle of the 20th century, and that Diego Rivera, as well as famous architects of the time, all combined their efforts to make the structures not just functional but also aesthetically pleasing.
The centerpiece of these buildings is the Water Garden Museum which had been closed for renovation for several years. At first I didn't care for it, then I forgot about it, but in recent years, when I realized that I really wanted to know about the place, it annoyed me quite a bit that it was closed for so long. Now, however, after nearly another year of absence, I am happy to see that the restoration work has been completed, and the museum is finally open!
Tlaloc Feeding Water to the City
In front of the building there is a wide pool with a mosaic sculpture of the pre-colombian God of Water, Tlaloc in it. It is impossible to really see it from the ground, as it was originally intended to be seen from the airplanes passing over it. Back in the 50's all air traffic to and from Mexico City passed over the place, and since the planes used to fly lower too, it gave the passengers a nice view of this sculpture. Today, you have to rely on the images on the Museum's website or the info panel next to the museum.
While Tlaloc is looking up at the sky, his immense head has a second face looking into the museum. The water that is pumped in from the Lerma river arrives under Tlaloc, running into the building. What is a museum today used to be the pool where the water was distributed into the four 500,000 liter tanks, intended for about a third of the city. So when you look out of the building, you can see Tlaloc's second face looking back at you, with a pair of hands below it, right where the water entered the pool.
Art and Functionality
For such a distribution pool you would normally imagine simple gray walls, probably even covered, so not only would there be nothing interesting to see, it would most likely be impossible to see anything. Not so in this case! Rivera covered all walls of the pool, as well as the bottom, with an interesting mural, keeping to the aquatic topic of the entire complex.
The bottom of the pool features microbial life of single celled organisms. Supposedly, the artist didn't leave it up to his own imagination to come up with them, but actually recreated actual microbes the way you would see them under a microscope. Moving up from the bottom to the walls, he includes more complex forms of life, such as plants, fish, amphibians, and reptiles, before arriving at the image of humans. Making use of the earliest human fossils discovered, he depicts an African man and an Asian woman on the two opposing sides.
In the corners he included construction workers who built this entire water pipeline, bringing freshwater through the mountains to the city. On one side the workers look more indigenous, using traditional methods of shovels and picks, while on the other side they rely on advanced machinery to drill through the rocks. In both cases they are offering drinking water to Mexicans of either indigenous or Spanish cultures, something he always liked to emphasize in his art.
On the wall opposing the entry of the water you can see the four locks leading to the four tanks. Above them Rivera painted te portraits of the engineers and architects who had worked on the project. The name of each one is included above their portraits.
Acoustic Beauty of the Water
The aesthetic features of this water facility don't stop at the elaborate and colorful murals. There is also a very cool music machine that captures the frequencies of the water passing through the pipes, and translates it into music... or let's just say sounds, played through organ pipes mounted on the walls. The machine itself is pretty interesting to behold, in its Art Deco style, looking like some sci-fi idea of a futuristic music player from a century ago. The sound can best be described as very ambient, natural, maybe for meditation or for a good night's sleep. In fact, it had to be pointed out for me to notice.
Too Strange To Be Real?
Again, I feel the need to remind my readers, that this was planned and built as a functional water infrastructure, not as a museum. In fact, the water pipes coming from the Lerma river are active and in use today, just as before. They just happen to bypass this building. As it turns out, the water and the painted walls were not a fortunate combination.
Only a couple of years after its inauguration all the murals had been so covered in moss that the images were not to be seen. Also, Diego Rivera died in 1959, so he never completed painting the ceiling of the dome above the tank. For many years nothing happened, and even when it was decided to restore Rivera's mural, work progressed slowly. However, the moss had also protected the painting, and after long and tedious work, it was finally revealed to the public. When I saw that the museum was finally open, I knew I had to go and see it. Something I can recommend to anyone who's in Mexico City!