Robert Smithson: Hotel Palenque

Robert Smithson, "Hotel Palenque," 1969–72, Slide projection of thirty-one 35 mm color slides (126 format) and audio recording of a lecture by the artist at the University of Utah in 1972 (42 min, 57 sec), dimensions variable, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Purchased with funds contributed by the International Director's Council and Executive Committee Members: Edythe Broad, Henry Buhl, Elaine Terner Cooper, Linda Fischbach, Ronnie Heyman, Dakis Joannou, Cindy Johnson, Barbara Lane, Linda Macklowe, Brian McIver, Peter Norton, Willem Peppler, Denise Rich, Rachel Rudin, David Teiger, Ginny Williams, and Elliot K. Wolk, 99.5268 © Estate of Robert Smithson/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Hotel Palenque, a slideshow of Robert Smithson’s photographs, reveals an unfinished hotel on the Mayan architectural site of Palenque, Mexico.Taken in 1969 during his travels to northern Yucatán, these photographs reveal spatial and architectural uncertainties, transitioning between temporal boundaries of the past and present. This “non-site”, a place lacking purpose, is evidence of a vision not realized and a man-made intervention entropically falling back into the earth. This body of work has since been acquired by the Guggenheim you can read more about it here https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/5321 .

About Cultural Cartographies: Mapping Man-Made Interventions in Contemporary Landscapes

Focusing on still image or filmmaking as a primary medium, this series explores how varied manifestations of political, environmental, urban, and utopian interventions inform a more contemporary way of thinking about the entanglement of history and geography. Through this form of investigation, Cultural Cartographies reveals how artists negotiate understandings of space and place, using technologies of vision, that shape social and natural environments.

Robert Smithson: Hotel Palenque

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About Cultural Cartographies: Mapping Man-Made Interventions in Contemporary Landscapes