MUSEO SOUMAYA MEXICO CITY

commercialspaces

Dec 23

Written By Lauren Engel

COMMERCIAL

MUSEO SOUMAYA MEXICO CITY

Client: Museo Soumaya

Architecture: Fernando Romero Enterprise

Location: Polanco, Mexico City

Services provided

film production • cinematography • producing

ABOUT

The Museo Soumaya is a private museum in Mexico City and a non-profit cultural institution with two museum buildings in Mexico City. It has over 66,000 works from 30 centuries of art including sculptures from Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, 19th- and 20th-century Mexican art and an extensive repertoire of works by European old masters and masters of modern western art such as Auguste Rodin, Salvador Dalí, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and Tintoretto. It is called one of the most complete collections of its kind.

The museum was designed by Slim's son-in-law, Fernando Romero's practice, fr·ee

In recent years, Mexico City, Mexico has become one of the most sought after destinations for tourists from all corners of the world. This is largely in part due to the booming food and restaurant scene, as well as the one of a kind artistic attractions. Soumaya is no exception. With the building being so unique in shape and materials, capturing this artistic piece of architecture in its best light, required a particular approach.
Arturo + Lauren took to this approach by first examining the time of day and what the activity looked like in and around the museum. The disbursement of people, activity, light, and reflection of other buildings on the Soumaya were all factors that had to be carefully considered and thus a large part of this project was timing and playing with angles from other buildings for optimal perspectives.
The main images were not aerial but to offer a variety of angles to the client, Arturo + Lauren retained local drone pilots and permissions to shoot from other buildings since in this case, more than street level shots were needed. For the drone footage, the approach was a drone hyperlapse so there could be a connection made between the building and the community around it. There was also a reliance on timelapses to see the reflection in the facade with the light changing. Timelapses were the best way to capture these shifts throughout the day. Soumaya is central in Mexico City and the tie to the city is not only a staple in this area, but a main reason tourists and locals alike come to the Soumaya day in and day out to experience sunrises to sunsets and everything in between through the reflection of this mirrored architectural piece of art.
Inside of the Soumaya, Arturo + Lauren chose to have more subtle movement in shots and removed some people and activity within the footage post-production so activity was still felt and seen but not overbearing in the space. The main goal was to capture how people interact with the artwork as well as the different levels of the spiraling staircases to show the depth of the architecture as a whole.
Arturo + Lauren had a goal of showcasing how art is extremely relevant within architecture and the Soumaya Museum in Mexico City, Mexico allowed them the range to show just that.