Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo and More Condesa Wanderings

After Spanish class, returned home for lunch, then took an a taxi to Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo. Wandered the grand halls and ramps, with art by Stellweg, Picasso, Bacon, Magritte. The interior and exterior brings to mind the structure of an Aztec pyramid.

Pierre Huyghe's "Human Mask"

Entered a small, pitch-black theater with one bench and watched the nineteen minute untitled art movie known as “Human Mask” (2014) by Pierre Huyghe: a monkey in Fukushima, Japan, trained to to wait restaurant tables in a porcelain human girl mask, wig, and dress, is trapped alone in the darkened restaurant in the immediate aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The monkey waits, having learned its many tasks through rote memorization, but now, alone, torn between its animal nature and the tasks it has memorized to please humans, it wanders, looking to fulfill its job but with no way to do so. The creature, in expressionless mask, moves from room to room, through the kitchen, between tables, behind counters, through halls, in a futile search for direction, purpose, fulfillment. Finding none, it sits, nullified, waiting, listening to the sounds of the creaking buildings and the deafening roar of the natural and man-made disaster outside. Through the dark slits of the porcelain mask, the monkey's eyes move back and forth, up, down, looking, seeking, ready to fulfill the tasks of a job that no longer exists.

After the museum, wandered through the gardens and large art installations. Watched the kids climbing the rope gym in the rain. Then walked back to La Condesa to a tiny vegan hole-in-the-wall dessert cafe called I Quit. Ordered coffee and s’more brownies and cinnamon rolls. The waitress served them warm on enameled plates.

Walked through the rain to U.T.O.P.I.A for pizzas, sausage sandwiches, hot dogs, fries.

Then back through the calles and avenidas, making note of a bookstore and quaint cafes to return to.