fernando romero opens la cuadra with two exhibitions
Under the direction of Fernando Romero, La Cuadra, the 1968 equestrian complex designed by Luis Barragán on the outskirts of Mexico City, reopens as a public-facing cultural campus (find designboom’s previous coverage here). Timed with Mexico City Art Week 2026, the site launches its programming with Barragán en Barragán, the first exhibition dedicated to Barragán presented inside one of his own buildings, alongside a parallel presentation of works by Cuban-born American visual artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres.
images by Yannick Weber, unless stated otherwise
barragán inside barragán
Curated by architect Jorge Covarrubias, Barragán en Barragán focuses on more than ten of Barragán’s projects, including Casa Gálvez, the Casa-Estudio Barragán, the Convent of the Capuchinas, and La Cuadra itself. The exhibition features scale models and archival photographs by figures such as Yukio Futagawa, René Burri, and Armando Salas Portugal, the latter a close collaborator who helped articulate Barragán’s distinctive use of color and atmosphere. Works and references connected to artists in Barragán’s circle, including Chucho Reyes and Doctor Atl, frame the architect’s production within a broader cultural network. The exhibition is described as the first one produced by Mexicans about Barragán, presented within his architecture. ‘The singularity is to celebrate Luis Barragán inside one of Barragán’s own masterpieces. This exhibition centers on the evolution of his work, from modern great buildings to his own particular language,’ Romero notes.
The exhibition traces how Barragán constructed a personal vocabulary from vernacular traditions, sacred art, landscape design, and modern principles. Models and photographs emphasize recurring spatial elements that include thick planar walls, calibrated light, saturated surfaces, and the relationship between interior and exterior.
La Cuadra reopens as a public-facing cultural campus
poetic friction: felix gonzalez-torres at la cuadra
Running concurrently until April 5th, 2026, La Cuadra hosts a focused exhibition of works by Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Although Barragán and Gonzalez-Torres belonged to different generations and never met, the project proposes what organizers describe as a ‘poetic friction’ between their practices. Gonzalez-Torres’s works, often composed of everyday materials such as stacks of paper or strings of light, are installed in direct dialogue with Barragán’s architecture.
In his practice, Gonzalez-Torres destabilized the autonomy of the minimalist object, allowing meaning to shift through context and viewer participation. Installed at La Cuadra, the works respond to Barragán’s chromatic walls, enclosed courtyards, and calibrated daylight, activating themes of intimacy, love, transcendence, space, and light. ‘There’s something profoundly moving about seeing Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s work framed by Barragán’s masterful pink courtyard: a dialogue in which love, silence, and beauty astonish all who behold it.’ Fernando Romero notes.
The presentation marks the first solo exhibition of Gonzalez-Torres in Mexico City since his 2010 show at the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo and his 1998 exhibition at the Museo Rufino Tamayo. Loans from institutional collections, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago, situate the project within an international framework, while the collaboration with the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation underscores the archival and conceptual precision of the installation.
the site launches its programming with two exhibitions
la cuadra as a cultural campus
Originally completed in 1968, La Cuadra stands as one of Barragán’s most spatially complex works, defined by planes of color, controlled vistas, and landscaped sequences. Its reactivation under Romero frames the building as a site for research, exhibition-making, and interdisciplinary programming. The initiative is led by Fundación Romero, which positions the campus as a platform for dialogue between architecture and contemporary art. Access to the exhibition is by appointment through the venue’s website, with free admission for residents of Atizapán de Zaragoza and national or international students.
Barragán, the only Mexican recipient of the Pritzker Prize, built a body of work that fused vernacular Mexican traditions with modernist abstraction. His projects, including the Casa-Estudio Barragán, Torres de Satélite, and La Cuadra, continue to influence architects and artists drawn to his calibrated use of color, silence, and landscape.
Gonzalez-Torres’s works are installed in direct dialogue with Barragán’s architecture | image by GLR Studio
a focused exhibition of works by Felix Gonzalez-Torres | image by GLR Studio
La Cuadra stands as one of Barragán’s most spatially complex works | image by GLR Studio
a site for research, exhibition-making, and interdisciplinary programming | image by GLR Studio
Gonzalez-Torres’s works are often composed of everyday materials such | image by GLR Studio
allowing meaning to shift through context and viewer participation | image by GLR Studio
a ‘poetic friction’ between the practices of Barragán and Gonzalez-Torres | image by GLR Studio
Barragán en Barragán focuses on more than ten of the architect’s projects | image by GLR Studio
the exhibition features scale models and archival photographs | image by GLR Studio
Barragán built a body of work that fused Mexican traditions with modernist abstraction | image by GLR Studio
works that continue to influence architects and artists | image by GLR Studio
the first exhibition produced by Mexicans about Barragán, presented within his architecture | image by Kevin Corona
the show traces how Barragán constructed a personal vocabulary from vernacular traditions | image by GLR Studio
project info:
name: La Cuadra San Cristóbal cultural campus opening
exhibitions: Barragán en Barragán + Felix Gonzalez-Torres at La Cuadra
original architect: Luis Barragán
location: Atizapán de Zaragoza, Mexico City, Mexico
foundation & program direction: Fundación Fernando Romero | @free_fernando_romero
photographer: © Yannick Wegner | @yannickwegner
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