Allotment III opens at the University of Monterrey

Allotment III (2008) returns to Monterrey as a permanent installation following its first showing at MARCO in 2008.

Allotment III comprises 300 life-size bunkers made of reinforced concrete. Each of the hollow, standing bunkers is made from the precise measurements of 300 inhabitants of Monterrey who volunteered to take part in the project. These measurements were then used to cast each concrete body-case.

Together, the rows of bunkers, some clustered together in groups suggesting interpersonal emotional relations and others alone, form a collective body as a landscape or cityscape. The installation’s context is significant. Embracing its new educational setting, students from the university participated in the work’s restoration. Its specific location, too, makes us aware of our position in the built environment and our relation to the elemental world, located as it is between Tadao Ando’s ‘Gate of Creation’, the Cerro de las Mitras mountain in the distance and the palms, pylons and tower blocks that surround the university. Positioned outdoors, Allotment III will also show the dual effects of time and the elements: the longer the concrete bunkers remain in this setting, exposed to the sun, the more they will bleach and transform over time. Like the bodies they once cased, they will register entropy.

Photographs: Allotment III, 2008, reinforced concrete, 300 life-size elements derived from the dimensions of local inhabitants of Monterrey, N. L., Mexico. Permanent installation, University of Monterrey, Mexico. Photographs by Gabriela Guajardo.