QUEENS, NEW YORK.- The Queens Museum of Art presents ABCDF: Portraits of Mexico City, on view through September 17. The inhabitants of one of the largest cities in the world are exposed to inexhaustible stimuli of all kinds. In the presence of such a vast amount of fortuitous and random information, the free and playful association of images triggered the decision to publish a book on the experience of living in the Federal District.

One day the title came to us: ABCDF. Immediately thereafter the project became a dictionary, a repertory of images that referred to Mexico City, organized from A to Z. In this way, we began to build a list of words that, after several months, numbered more than 900. The artists, photographers, and writers that became involved in the project began to add their ideas to this extensive body of work, which gradually found its definitive form.

This project is a collective exercise in discovery. It is an attempt to understand the differing attachments and mysterious attributes that this city contains, as well as the intimate and affectionate experiences that it produces in its peoples. More than glorifying or denigrating the city, the intention was to explore what it means to live in an urban center of these dimensions. Although, the photographs, paintings, prints, engravings, videos, short films, animations, digital images, sounds, texts and everyday objects contain a personal viewpoint, they also contribute to creating a collective visual perspective.

From the beginning we knew that this project was going to achieve its full dimension in three formats: the intimate experience of a book, the interactive experience with a CD ROM that opened the doors to movement and the characteristic sounds associated with the city, and a collective experience. We envisioned the latter as an exhibition where the project would become a three-dimensional space in which the spectator would find multiple references to his or her everyday life.

We could not imagine a better place to exhibit a show containing the vision on Mexico City than the Queens Museum of Art: the museum is housed in the historical building that was the home to two world’s fairs and served as the original home of the United Nations General Assembly; the borough of Queens is the most ethnically diverse locale in the world; and New York City is perhaps the one city that could understand the breadth and depth of Mexico City.

The introductory gallery testifies to the importance of registering the daily life of a city. Since its beginnings, Mexico City has been seen as a grandiose and monumental settlement and it has been represented as such from the 16th century up until the present. The rest of the exhibition is divided by approximately 250 words that are distributed throughout the galleries in alphabetical order —from Abasto to Zoom.

The combined work of the Queens Museum of Art and Control Bureau showed us that by working in groups enterprises can be accomplished. Thanks to this energetic group, that was always present during the third stage of this project’s development, we were able to feel an affinity with the great masters who have passed through this magnificent place. Their support helped us through the hours spent working on the project and during all the most difficult decisions that we had to take.