San Agustin Etla Arts Center – Water Reflections

We visited San Agustin Etla Arts Center in Mexico a few years ago, and I always wanted to make a post on this ever since. The opportunity came with a WP challenge on reflections. Just perfect, because most of my photos taken there are based on water reflections. I never had such a surrealistic sentiment before… * Click on the photos for a larger format!

 

But let’s start with the beginning: I’m talking about a historic yarn and fabric factory dating back to 1883.

 

The famous Mexican artist Francisco Toledo transformed this old factory into the first center of ecological arts in Latin America. It is an incredible artistic place where creativity seems to come just naturally…

Today, everybody knows this fantastic place in San Augustin Etla, Oaxaca, Mexico as the CASA. The whole Spanish name of it is Centro de las Artes de San Agustín.

The idea of using water as one of the main artistic features obviously came from the industrial process of the yarn and fabric. And water is everywhere there. Even the pink steps in the photo above are just waterfalls, framing the main entrance.

San Agustin Etla Arts Center water reflections

The real beauty comes inside, where the central area is just water, reflecting the old factory walls. Just incredible to see all this play with shapes, lines, planes and visual illusions!

We visited the place in the month of February, and it happened to be a gray cloudy day. That was fortunate, because the natural light helped emphasize the idea of an old industrial kind of building.

There are several basins of water at various levers, and it depends on the angle you look at them.

You go and visit the outside workshops and exhibitions by walking on large enough alleyways on the sides of the water basins.

And here are a few more reflections:

Inside, the windows reflect the light on the old factory floor,

and outside, the beautiful surrounding landscape:

 

But as you leave, another reflective water basin that you may have ignored when you came in, is waiting for you.

 

I hope you enjoyed this virtual visit to San Agustin Etla Arts Center and its water reflections

---

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #87 – Reflections | Art Unexpected |