In her new solo show “4 Meters,” Professor Beatriz Cortez explores how everything is in a process of transformation: flowing, moving, changing, and falling apart. Cortez regards the sinking of the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City as a metaphor for impermanence. The surrounding Lake Texcoco aids this transformation, resisting the cultural occupation of the Palacio—the ultimate symbol of modernity—and measuring time by the increasing depth of the spoils of colonialism it drowns. Like a cenote, the lake swallows offerings, enabling the survival of the Indigenous cultures and spirituality of the ancient urban center that once occupied this site. Evoking the words of the poet ruler of Texcoco, Netzahualcoyotl, Cortez reminds us that everything crumbles: “Not forever on Earth: only fleetingly here. Even if made of jade it breaks, even if made of precious metal it cracks, even if made of quetzal feathers it tears. Not forever on Earth: only fleetingly here.”

4 Meters is on view from November 15, 2025–December 20, 2025.