In May 2023, departing from the transient nature of typical lobbies, CO,MA introduced Nest in the Rockefeller International Building—a space embracing immensity, condensing intimacy, and encouraging prolonged contemplation. Rejecting the anonymity of conventional transit areas, Nest curated a collection of art and design pieces, inviting viewers to engage deeply with their beauty and historical significance. Central to the installation was Dr. Atl’s Landscape with Mountains (Valley of Mexico), a prelude to the Mexican Muralist movement, reflecting the nation’s pre-modern era. Accompanying this was a homage to Constance Spry, featuring her wild floral creations juxtaposed with an English Neoclassical Vase. Each day, these compositions evolved, echoing Spry’s democratic treatment of flora. Set against an Oluce Easel Lamp and Breuton Cocktail Table, Nest fostered an intimate dialogue between past and present, inviting visitors to create their own cosmos within its enduring embrace—a concept inspired by Gaston Bachelard’s “Poetics of Space.”
Lobbies, airports, parking lots, malls, are all transitory spaces, defined as non-locations or places of anonymity. Places that transport us from one spot to the next but that are not meant to be stayed at.
In CO,MA we sought to create a space to contravene this idea of a transitory zone.
We proposed Nest as a space that, though small, embraced immensity, condensed intimacy and provided the necessary time to see things up close. We selected objects that ask for a sharpened sense of perception in order to be appreciated in their beauty and historical value. Nest was composed by art and design pieces, which are representative of specific moments and movements in art history and design.
Having Rockefeller Centre as a location for our installation, we decided to include a fundamental painting made before the famous Mexican Muralist movement, for we deemed necessary to tell the story of what happened before this important era. The central piece for this installation was: Landscape with Mountains (Valley of Mexico) by Dr. Atl (1875-1964).
Dr. Atl was an artist preoccupied with including national traditions and social concerns within his practice, though in a manner more oblique than in the Muralists’ work. By presenting landscape as a major theme in his oeuvre, Dr. Atl includes remote places in Mexico; through his style he is able to present matter in its primeval state, reflecting his formation as a volcanologist. Even though his major contribution belongs to the school of landscape, Atl’s art shows a country that was at the stage of a Revolution (1910-1917), on the verge of entering an era of modernity.
In our installation, Dr. Atl’s painting was accompanied by a contemporary of his, the author and florist Constance Spry (1886-1960) whom we wanted to pay homage by bringing one of her wild and original creations into the present. Everyday during the exhibition an English Five-Finger Neoclassical Vase (18th Century) was arranged with a variety of plants and vegetables following her idea of treating flora democratically. Landscape with Mountains was installed on an Easel Lamp (1950) by Oluce Manufacturers and the flora arrangements were displayed on a Cocktail Table under the style of Breuton.
As indicated by its name, Nest was an intimate space that told an important part of art and design history, and it was conceived to endure, becoming the visitor’s own cosmos.
*Idea taken from Gaston Bachelard’s Poetics of Space.