This morning, a large part of the morning conference from the National Palace, headed by the President of the Republic, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was devoted to the presentation of advances in the priority project for the integration of the Bosque de Chapultepec Cultural Complex from which they take part federal and local authorities.
For this, the head of the Government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo; the federal Secretary of Culture, Alejandra Frausto Guerrero, and the coordinator of the project, the contemporary artist Gabriel Orozco, among other officials involved.
Initially, the head of government indicated that so far 3,000 million 876 pesos have been invested in the project of the more than 10,335 million destined for the six-year project that, she announced, should be inaugurated in its entirety in December 2023.
However, the official did not specify the situation of the budget that was already assigned, but has not been invested, since, according to the Federation’s Expenditure Budgets, from 2020 and until the end of fiscal year 2021 the project has been injected 5,176 million pesos (1,668 million pesos in the PEF 2020 and 3,508 million pesos in 2021). In other words, according to what was declared by the official from the capital, some 2,000 million allocated in previous years remain unused.
Additionally, for the fiscal year of the current year, the priority project will receive an additional 3,823.5 million pesos, which would give a sum at the end of the year of almost 9,000 million pesos.
Advances and calls
The coordinator of the project, Gabriel Orozco, presented images of the conditions of the work in progress, both in the fourth section, with the project of the Cineteca Nacional del Poniente and the forecast of what for now is called Bodega Nacional de Arte, although he said that in due course it might receive another name; the result of the construction of the Urban Culture Park (Parcur), the restitution of the Dolores Pantheon and the highly questioned project of the Environmental Culture Center.
“It was very motivating to see the awareness of the architects who began to promote and propose architectural works that are not mausoleums, that are not white elephants, that are not heavy and are integrated into nature and the landscape that is also in an evolutionary process,” Orozco pointed out.
Likewise, he presented very broadly the forecasts of the projects of the Center for Environmental Culture, in the second section; of the Scenic Pavilion, next to the Forest Cultural Center, while the latter receives attention for its remodeling and integration into the forest.
Orozco also presented the next call for what he called the Contemporary Nature and Culture Pavilion, which will take place on the site that was occupied by the greenhouse of the Botanical Garden in the first section, which was moved to the second section.
“With the participation of the Secretary of the Environment of Mexico City and the Secretary of Culture, as well as the Governing Council of Chapultepec, we decided that we could improve the situation of this greenhouse, proposing a pavilion that would ‘contemporaneize’ the activities of the same botanical garden, reinforcing it and finishing its water restoration to, through a competition for designers, architects, biologists and artists, generate a biocultural pavilion on the already impacted plate without affecting a single tree, not a single plant”, he said and He added that the call will be announced as of March 12.
For his part, Frausto Guerrero once again defended this project, which has been described by artistic and intellectual communities in the country as centralist.
“Although the Chapultepec project is located in this city, it has a national impact, in all the states of the Republic, because from it cultural circuits are generated that receive and trigger cultural activity in the 32 states, through calls, circuits, tours There is a significant number of artists who have been part of these circuits”.
Finally, Frausto Guerrero reiterated that it will be in this complex where the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development (Mondiacult) will take place, which will take place from September 28 to 30 and will receive 190 ministers of culture from around the world.