The exhibition Citámbulos – Journey to the Mexican Megalopolis
allows visitors to penetrate Mexico City and get to know up close the encounters and conflicts that arise there every day. The show is a dialogue between the myriad aspects of the conurbation: its texts, photographs, videos, soundscapes, and objects are invitations to learn, and rediscover, what it is that nourishes and enlivens the streets of the Mexican capital. Citámbulos permits us to see that — beyond the routines of economics and politics — the vitality of this city lies in personal contact, wherever it takes place: on public transport, at work, or in brief moments of leisure. The exhibition promotes an approach to urban society that explores its codes for living together, those cultural rituals that are so interiorized as to be almost forgotten. This hinders our assessment of their significance and their reasons for existing, which only come to be recognized when nearly extinct, under threat, or when an attempt to replace them leads to violence. In this sense, Citámbulos is a great work of modern anthro pology that seeks to explain the meaning and vitality of Mexico City; this is why the National Institute for Anthro pology and History (INAH) is supporting its labors. This new century needs disciplines that go beyond archives and mere facts; it demands supple and methodologically solvent mechanisms that contribute to the better understanding of what we call reality. Coming to understand the pulse of this megalopolis is a key step towards its — and our — survival.
NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ANTHROPOLOGY AND HISTORY