No. 9

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Exhibitions

Conceived and designed by architect Frida Escobedo (Mexico City), the exhibition No. 9 explores the history of La Ruta de la Amistad (“Route of Friendship”) in Mexico City, a monumental public sculpture project that was launched as part of the cultural program for the 1968 Olympics. Presenting archival research and a new sculptural installation, the exhibition probes the optimism and underlying contradictions of this ambitious convergence of artistic vision, urban development, and international diplomacy.

Sited along an eleven-mile stretch of Mexico City’s then burgeoning highway system, La Ruta de la Amistad comprised a network of nineteen monumental sculptures, or “stations,” by artists from seventeen countries. German-born Mexican artist Mathias Goeritz served as artistic advisor of the 1968 Olympic Organizing Committee and was director of La Ruta. His open-ended brief called for the sculptures to be abstract, made of concrete, and monumental in size, since they would be experienced from the perspective of a moving car. Upon completion, each was painted in bright colors. The multinational and modernist aesthetics of La Ruta’s sculptures amplified government efforts to present Mexico as a thriving, cosmopolitan nation on the global stage of the Olympics — the first games hosted by a Latin American country. Since then, many of the sculptures have been moved as part of a heritage initiative, and the “Route of Friendship” now only exists in the collective imagination.

Responding to the American context of the Ross Gallery exhibition, Escobedo mines the history of the ninth station of La Ruta by artist Todd Williams (b. 1939), who represented the United States in the international sculpture project. No. 9 presents archival construction photographs and documents, and uses these as a basis to reconstruct the underlying steel skeleton of Williams’ original sculpture. The new sculpture is further contextualized through items from the artist’s personal archive, including photographs, ephemera, and correspondence. Collectively, these items allow Escobedo to propose an alternative, more intimate interpretation of the official narrative of La Ruta, uncovering the hidden processes and exchanges that brought the project into being, while also raising timely and complex questions about the role of art and architecture in the construction of national and political identity, and international relations.

No. 9 is organized by Columbia GSAPP. It is conceived and designed by Frida Escobedo, and curated by Irene Sunwoo, Curator of the Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery and GSAPP Director of Exhibitions.

GSAPP Assistant Director of Exhibitions: Tiffany Lambert

Curatorial assistant: Phoebe Springstubb

Graphic design: Estudio Herrera

Project assistants: Axelle Dechelette, Betzabe Valdés López

Research support: Archive Arquitecto Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, Patronato Ruta de la Amistad

Installation photography: James Ewing

Read the Press Release

GSAPP CONVERSATIONS

Frida Escobedo speaks with GSAPP student Andrew Nolan on the occasion of her exhibition at the Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery. They discuss the tension between social and historical time, and how that can shape understandings of architecture. Escobedo also touches on her desire to reactivate forgotten spaces, such as in the Hotel Boca Chica, and how the process of making No. 9 echoed the creation of the original sculptures.

“Exhibitions and biennials have allowed us to understand architecture in a very different timeframe. When you think about architecture you think about years … But with these temporary installations you get to see architecture from a different perspective, it’s almost like compressing the life of architecture”.
—Frida Escobedo

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Oct 14 – Dec 14, 2017

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Feb 27 – Jun 27, 2025

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Exhibition Opening