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Jorge Matute Remus. Technology at the Service of The City (2022)
Curatorial Assistant: Sully Mitrani Contente
Artists:
Alejandro Almanza Pereda, Javier Barrios, Isa Carrillo, Claudia Cisneros, Jose Dávila, Cynthia Gutiérrez, Gabriel Rico, Eduardo Sarabia, Emanuel Tovar, Bruno Viruete.
Historical works by: Mathias Goeritz, Fernando González Gortázar, and Rubén Mora Gálvez.
Materials from: Jorge Matute Remus Archive, Biblioteca Pública del Estado de Jalisco 'Juan José Arreola', and the Matute Villaseñor Family.
In 1950, engineer Jorge Matute Remus (1912–2002) imagined, planned, and executed one of the most remarkable feats in the urban history of Guadalajara: the relocation of the Compañía Telefónica Mexicana building—while the telephone operators continued working inside. Through the effort of an exceptional team of engineers and construction workers, the building was moved 12 meters, including a slight rotational shift, without interrupting the city’s telephone service. While his engineering knowledge and scientific rigor were indispensable in orchestrating a choreography of levers, rails, and concrete, the success of the operation was ultimately due to Matute Remus’s imagination, will, and character.
Always committed to the well-being of the people of Guadalajara, Matute Remus was a visionary, creative, and ingenious man. Beyond his work as an engineer and urban planner, he was an outstanding educator and, as Universidad de Guadalajara’s rector, played a key role in founding the School of Architecture. He held several public service positions, including founder and director of the Sistema Intermunicipal de los Servicios de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado (SIAPA) and mayor of Guadalajara. He also maintained a prolific writing practice throughout his life, publishing in newspapers and magazines, as well as through various self-managed publications.
Jorge Matute Remus. Technology at the Service of the City is the result of archival research in the Fondo Histórico Jorge Matute Remus. The exhibition takes its title from the short film produced on the occasion of the Telefónica building’s relocation, presented here alongside a selection of documentary photographs from the same archive. These materials are placed in dialogue with documents and personal objects, historical artworks, and commissions by contemporary artists, contextualizing Matute Remus’s practice and ideas and his influence on both the city’s urban development and cultural life. Organized into five thematic sections, the exhibition offers a multifaceted portrait of Engineer Matute Remus through his ways of understanding the world; his relationship with water—and particularly with Lago de Chapala; the ongoing dialogue between architecture and engineering; and the diverse ways in which he shared his knowledge.
Acknowledgments:
Octavio Abúndez, Laura Benítez Barba, Alejandro Cámara, Susana Chávez, Juan Manuel Durán, Octavio Durán Matute, Margarita Fuentes, Daniel Garza Usabiaga, David Lozano Díaz, Guadalupe Martínez, Elena Matute Villaseñor, Esmeralda Matute Villaseñor, Enrique Nuño, Victor Palacios, Lorena Peña Brito, Aditi Ruiz.
// Anteus Constructora, Biblioteca Pública del Estado de Jalisco “Juan José Arreola”, Black Coffee Collection, MoMoGDL, and Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara.
In memory of Mireya Escalante.