Installation view of MXCD03 at Archivo Diseño y Arquitectura. Photography: Arturo Arrieta

When Mexico City was announced as World Design Capital 2018 three years ago, Archivo Diseño y Arquitectura – the country’s foremost design and architecture gallery – pondered over how they could possibly respond to the designation in a timely and relevant fashion. Their answer was a trilogy of sorts, aspiring to unpack the present, past and future of the megapolis with three exhibitions over the course of a year.

三年前，当墨西哥城被宣布为“2018年世界设计之都”(World Design Capital 2018)时，该国最重要的设计和建筑画廊阿奇沃·迪塞诺·y阿奎图拉(Archivo Dise O Y ArquArchtura)思考着，他们如何才能及时而切合实际地应对他们的回答是一部三部曲，希望在一年的时间里，用三次展览来展现大城市的现在、过去和未来。

Its recently launched grand finale, titled ‘MXCD03’, showcases seven newly-commissioned works by 14 Mexico City-based practitioners who were given the daunting task of envisioning the future of their home base — all in unlikely, multidisciplinary pairs. ‘We didn’t want it to look like a typical vision of the future,’ explains gallery director and curator Mario Ballesteros of the speculative exercise, that is largely stripped of technological gadgets and other anticipated utopian-fantasies.

该公司最近推出了名为“MXCD 03”的大结局，展示了14位墨西哥城从业者的七部新委托作品，他们被赋予了一项艰巨的任务，即对家乡基地的未来进行展望-所有作品都是不太可能的、多学科的。画廊馆长兼策展人马里奥·巴列斯特罗斯(Mario Ballesteros)解释说：“我们不想让它看起来像一个典型的未来景象。”

Instead, the display is loud yet subtle, at once precarious and sophisticated – much like its source material: the 22 million-strong Mexican capital. Works include a water crisis-inspired music video, courtesy of ORU architects and post-internet collective Asco Media; a floating, inflatable fortress responding to housing shortage by artist Barbara Sánchez-Kane and architect Andrés Souto, and wheeled scrap-metal vehicles imagined by designer Fabien Capello and bike makers Básica Studio as alternatives to cars.

相反，这款显示器响亮而微妙，既不稳定又复杂-就像它的原始素材：2200万人口的墨西哥首都。作品包括一部以水危机为灵感的音乐视频，由ORU建筑师和后互联网集体Asco Media提供；艺术家芭芭拉·桑切斯·凯恩(Barbara Sánchez-Kane)和建筑师安德烈斯·苏托(Andrés Souto)设计的一座漂浮的充气堡垒，以及设计师法比安·卡佩罗(Fabien Capello)和自行车制造商Básica Studio所设想的轮式废金属汽车。

Architecture studio Escobedo Soliz and designer Eugenio Rebolleda realised a pink exhibition design for MXCD03. Photography: Arturo Arrieta

建筑工作室Escobedo Soliz和设计师Eugenio Rebolleda为MXCD 03实现了粉红色的展览设计。摄影：Arturo Arrieta

‘We wanted to challenge the notion of design and what a designer is,’ says Ballesteros of the cross-disciplinary show, which pays homage to the eponymous 1956 exhibition ‘This Is Tomorrow’ at London’s Whitechapel Gallery.

“我们想挑战设计的概念和设计师是什么，”在伦敦白教堂画廊举行的跨学科展览上，巴列斯特罗斯说，这是对同名的1956年展览的敬意，“这是明天”。

Thankfully, a thoughtful scenography by architecture studio Escobedo Soliz (responsible for the 2016 MoMA PS1 Courtyard) in collaboration with designer Eugenio Rebolleda ties together the otherwise eccentric mix. A series of pink fabrics found hanging across the exhibition spaces and expanding into the outdoors serve as a simple yet poetic compartmentalising device.

谢天谢地，建筑工作室Escobedo Soliz(负责2016年MoMA PS1 Courtyard)与设计师Eugenio Rebolleda合作设计了一个经过深思熟虑的场景，将原本古怪的组合联系在一起。一系列粉红色的织物悬挂在展览空间上，延伸到户外，是一种简单而富有诗意的分隔装置。

Evoking the pink tarps that famously cover the city’s food markets, the exhibition design is also – and most importantly – a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the ever-changing, pink-obsessed city branding, which is to receive yet another refresh from the incoming mayor. ‘We’re pinker than Barragan!’ jokes Ballesteros of their famed neighbour, the late Mexican modernist architect, whose home and studio is only a stone’s throw from the gallery.

令人联想起以覆盖城市食品市场而闻名的粉色防水布，展览设计也是-也是最重要的-对不断变化、痴迷于粉红的城市品牌的嘲讽性评论，即将迎来新一轮市长的刷新。“我们比巴拉干还红！”他们著名的邻居、已故的墨西哥现代主义建筑师巴列斯特罗斯开玩笑说，他的家和工作室离画廊只有一步之遥。

And how do these experiments tie in with the broader narrative of World Design Capital? The answer, certainly, is open-ended. But let’s say that, rather than relying on existing successes, Archivo didn’t shy away from venturing into the megacity’s uncertain and complex aspirations. §

这些实验是如何与“世界设计之都”更广泛的叙述联系起来的呢？答案当然是开放的。但让我们说，与其依赖现有的成功，阿奇沃并没有回避冒险进入大城市的不确定和复杂的愿望。§