the zócalo nomadic museum

Gregory Colbert originally conceived of the idea for a sustainable traveling museum in 1999. He envisioned a structure that could easily be assembled in ports of call around the world, providing a transitory environment for his work on its global journey. The first public installation of Ashes and Snow at the Arsenale in Venice, which opened in 2002, inspired the architectural concepts used in the Nomadic Museum. The Zócalo Nomadic Museum, designed by Colombian architect Simón Vélez, occupied 5,130-square meters, and contained two galleries and three distinct theatres. For the first time, the Nomadic Museum incorporated water as a design element to recall the unique history of the Zócalo, which was once surrounded by canals. This architectural choice honored the symbolic significance of the Zócalo as the center of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, a city founded by the Aztecs on a small island in the middle of Lake Texcoco in 1325. 

Ashes and Snow will open in a new iteration of the bamboo Nomadic Museum in Brazil in 2009.