Xochimilco Virtual Museum: art and community in the face of environmental challenges

Abstract

The aim of this work is to explore the potential of art as a strategy for the dissemination and conservation of the Xochimilco territorial demarcation, which is located to the south of Mexico City and which, since pre-Hispanic times, has been of utmost environmental and cultural importance for the development of the Valley of Mexico. The starting point is the self-managed and transdisciplinary initiative Museo Virtual Xochimilco (MUVIXO) whose main objective is to contribute to the conservation of the area. In this context, it is essential to outline some of the socio-environmental problems of the area, such as the urban pressure that has increased in recent years, threatening the mixed heritage of the municipality. Likewise, it delves into the different types of relationships that have historically been established between art and nature, emphasizing the artistic processes through which individuals and their communities generate an appropriation of the environment. Along the same lines, it considers some of the social functions of art, underlining its potential to encourage community participation in conservation.  The current context, academics, artists, institutions and the community in general are called upon to design comprehensive and transdisciplinary proposals that promote the conservation of socio-ecosystems such as Xochimilco, a territory that, before the arrival of the Spanish, established human activity in balance with nature using sustainable technologies that are now at risk of disappearing. The use of new technologies, such as virtual reality, broadens the possibilities of promoting and integrating community participation through art, promoting the creation of local narratives that contribute to the construction of a living memory of the communities that inhabit the territory.