The Rumors of Water. Art, Architecture, and Awareness at UNAM

Water at UNAM does not merely flow through pipes or supplies laboratories and fountains: it also speaks to us through art, architecture, and the small ecosystems that coexist with everyday life on campus. In this issue of UNAM Internacional dedicated to water, the “Enfoque” section invites us on a journey through the university’s heritage, its infrastructure, and its cultural activities—an invitation to see, and feel the value of this essential element.  

Part of that experience is built into the very conception of spaces. At UNAM, numerous buildings were conceived as exercises in plastic integration, where architecture and art intertwine to produce meaning. In this dialogue, figures such as Diego Rivera, Juan O’Gorman, and Francisco Toledo incorporate symbolic elements—among them water—to evoke flows, nature, and life. We just need to lift our gaze up the Central Library to find Tlaloc, the Mexica deity of rain, depicted in O’Gorman’s mural. The god’s presence does not end on the façade: on the back side, a fountain reinterprets and extends his meaning. Similarly, at the building of the Economics Postgraduate, designed by the Legorreta Architects group, Francisco Toledo’s stained glass mural integrates figures of fish, shrimp, and insects that evoke the aquatic world, transforming the doors at the back of the stage—a versatile element by design—into an aesthetic and symbolic experience. More than ornament, these works activate a deep memory in which water appears as a principle of life, fertility, and balance.

But university water also inhabits less obvious, yet equally transformative, territories. In hallways and open spaces across various academic buildings, artificial wetlands have been installed to treat greywater while creating small biodiversity refuges. We often pass by them without noticing: they are discreet devices that condense knowledge into action, where biology, engineering, and sustainability converge.

Something similar occurs with irrigation systems that use treated water on green areas and sports facilities, as well as with the purified drinking water dispensers distributed across campus, which encourage responsible consumption and reduce the use of disposable plastics. Making them visible is also a way of awakening consciousness.

The cultural dimension expands this aquatic map. Numerous artistic activities, among them performances, and musical events approach water as a symbolic, political, and sensory territory. Through encounters, interdisciplinary dialogues, stage practices and concerts, power structures are questioned, community knowledge is recovered, and collective management of the resource is emphasized—while also exploring its sonic, bodily, and mnemonic dimensions.

Within this web, science communication activities take on a particular meaning. On World Water Day, UNAM deploys workshops, exhibitions, and events that not only commemorate but also seek to actively engage its community. Yet beyond specific dates, the challenge remains: to translate these experiences into everyday awareness, allowing us to recognize water not as a given resource, but as a shared heritage that demands attention, care, and collective responsibility.

The integration of architecture, art, and meaning at UNAM
Incorporation of symbols like Tlaloc to evoke water, nature and life in the Central Library, O’Gorman’s mural, and a later fountain.

Main Campus, UNAM

 Ximena Gómez

Central Library, on the Main Campus of University City, UNAM

 Ximena Gómez

Economics Graduate Building, Main Campus
Thirteen circular glass capsules embedded in the door that encloses the stage of the Jesús Silva Herzog Auditorium. Toledo encapsulated abstract figures made of natural mica, which acquire metallic hues reminiscent of gold, copper, and aged silver. The composition evokes water, the sea, and movement.

Vitrales, Francisco Toledo, Auditorio Jesús Silva Herzog, Posgrado de Economía.

 Ximena Gómez

Facultad de Estudios Superiores Iztacala

Casa Blanca sobre el agua Mural en cerámica por Luis Nishizawa

Infrastructure
The Institute of Engineering of UNAM has launched the plant called Atzintli at the UNAM Faculty of Political and Social Sciences. It captures carbon dioxide (CO₂). Located next to the wastewater treatment plant, it also enables the production of high commercial value biomass and generates cleaner water, suitable even for watering products intended for direct human consumption.


Water treatment plants for irrigation


Wetlands
Carlos Amador Bedolla, Director of the Faculty of Chemistry, shared with us that, as part of the responsibility towards chemistry as the “central science” of processes in the biosphere, the environmental engineering group has worked for years on the development of artificial wetlands. These systems use plants whose roots, through engineering control, can modify the concentration of pollutants in water.

He commented that a wetland was installed at the Faculty to address a particular problem: wastewater from urinals, which has a high concentration of urea. The design, led by Dr. Víctor Manuel Luna Pabello, incorporated a preliminary electrolysis stage to break down the urea and then subject the water to the natural wetland process. Currently, the treated water is reused for irrigation.

The Director highlighted the advantages of this approach: it is a natural, sustainable, aesthetically pleasing process, and very attractive for multidisciplinary interaction, as it involves collaboration among biologists, engineers, economists, and students. Finally, he emphasized that the student community of the Faculty of Chemistry is one of the most active and committed to sustainability, and that this project represents a tangible contribution to the mission of turning the University into a sustainable institution.


Outreach activities
Festival Universitario del Agua 2026 Agua y Género: Donde fluye el agua, crece la igualdad Las Islas, Ciudad Universitaria
On the occasion of World Water Day (March 22), 29 UNAM entities, together with public institutions, civil associations, and a private company, organized a festival to promote education, research, and cultural outreach on water conservation. Talks, workshops, and cultural and sports activities were held, bringing knowledge closer to the community.


Exhibition: Water, element of life
Universum, Museo de las Ciencias de la UNAM, CU


Cultural activities
“When the river does not sound” Exposición de Víctor Solís
Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco, UNAM
Homage to the work of Mexican artist Víctor Solís, with a title that alludes to the popular wisdom found in sayings, presenting a hypothesis contrary to a troubling scenario: What will happen when the planet’s resources have run out?


Tratando las aguas II: El agua que somos.
Casa del Lago, Chapultepec, 2025
Ciclo de mesas de reflexión
The discussion addressed the role of water in the human body —which represents nearly 60% of our body weight— and the growing threat of microplastics that enter the body through water, food, and air. It questioned how they truly affect health, what consequences their accumulation has, and above all, whether there is an effective way to protect oneself from this risk.


De lo líquido del agua; allí donde otros han fracasado yo no fracasé Marek Wolfryd - Armando Rosales Museo Universitario del Chopo, 2019
Exposición
Marek Wolfryd intervenes the nomadic “work box” (caja de obra) of Carlos Cruz-Diez in Mexico City through a revision of liquid geometrism (a Latin American concept from the 1960s-70s that united art, mathematics, and nature). His intervention questions the museum model in Latin America, reflecting on public exhibition, and presents a piece that brings together elements of local “nature” inside an aquarium.

https://tv.unam.mx/portfolio-item/postal-expo-de-lo-liquido-del-agua-chopo/
OFUNAM 
Jornada de mujeres en la música OFUNAM Primera Temporada 2025 Música y medio ambiente Agua
In its 2025 First Season, the OFUNAM explores the relationship between music and the environment, with water as its central theme. The programmed works invite us to reflect on this essential resource within the artistic imagination — both as a source of inspiration and due to its vulnerability to human action and climate change.

German percussionist Vanessa Porter performed Tan Dun’s Water Concerto at the Nezahualcóyotl Hall with the #OFUNAM. This concerto explores the musicality of water as a solo instrument. 

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