MEXICO CITY.- For its 8th edition, which hosts Germany as Guest Country, Design Week Mexico is presenting in collaboration with Museo Tamayo, a major public architectural pavilion designed by leading German architects Nikolaus Hirsch / Michel Muller. Until Spring 2017, the pavilion will become a significant cultural attraction of Chapultepec Park, Mexico City’s largest public park, for everyone to enjoy.

Based on a concept developed by prominent German philosopher Boris Groys, A Museum of Immortality was originally mounted as an exhibition in Beirut, curated by artist and e-flux co-founder Anton Vidokle. The project draws on 19th Century Russian philosopher Nikolai Federov’s notion of the ‘Common Task’, which considers the creation of the technological, social and political conditions to resurrect all men who have ever lived. The pavilion and its artistic narrative virtually transform Museo Tamayo into a machine for making things immortal, celebrating the democratization of the museum and inviting visitors to become not only and artist, but an artwork.

Situated at the entrance of Museo Tamayo and reminiscent of both sarcopharguses and museum vitrines, the modules are assembled into a 6 x 6 and 8m-high hexagonal architectonic structure. After the horizontal system in Beirut, the new structure in Mexico City has become A Museum of Immortality´s first vertical configuration, resembling a hybrid between mausoleum and space capsule. The architectural structure has been contextualized by a video on the conceptual approach of the project, featuring interviews and documenting some artistic contributions.

Based in Frankfurt, Nikolaus Hirsch / Michel Müller are responsible for acclaimed international projects such as Bockenheimer Depot Theater with William Forsythe, Unitednationsplaza in Berlin with Anton Vidokle and Do We Dream Under The Same Sky with Rirkrit Tiravanija. Their work has been widely exhibited, among others at Manifesta 7 (2008), Istanbul Design Biennale (2012), Art Basel (2015), and the Chicago Architecture Biennial (2015).

A Museum of Immortality II is commissioned by Design Week Mexico, the country’s leading platform for design and architecture, in collaboration with Museo Tamayo, in the context of the yearly DWM Tamayo Project.

Nikolaus Hirsch / Michel Müller, Architects, said: "We are thrilled to show a prototype for the Museum of Immortality in Mexico City. Its deep fascination with death cults make Mexico a very special context for such a speculative project. Based on theories of cosmism and resurrection by philosopher Boris Groys and artist Anton Vidokle we try to question the limits of what we call design and the material world. We ask: Can we design after-life? Can - as the context of the Museo Tamayo suggests - humans be preserved like museal artifacts?”

Juan A. Gaitán, Director of Museo Tamayo, said: “As a leading public institution, Museo Tamayo is committed to enhancing aesthetic experience and critical sense across our various audiences. We are incredibly fortunate to be located in such an idyllic context in Chapultepec Park, enabling us to radically intervene on the public realm and it social life. It is exciting to be working with Design Week Mexico again this year to present our audiences with an exceptional project, both architecturally, artistically and socially.”