The  sculpture  park  of  Edward  James,  Las  Pozas.  The  most  representative  surrealistic  sanctuary  in  Mexico.  

 The sculpture park of Edward James, “Las Pozas” was created by Edward James, an eccentric poet and artist, also a great patron of the surrealist movement and is to be found in Xilitla, San Luis Potosi.  

By surrealism we understand the literary and artistic movement, which arose in Europe in 1917, and which, affirms that the world of dreams and unconsciousness are fountains of inspiration and creation. André Breton defines the first surrealistic manifest as, “dictates of thought, without regulatory reason and devoid of worry concerning style and moral.”

Nestled in the Huasteca Potosina, Edward James found the perfect setting to create his masterpiece.

Among natural and artificial pools and waterfalls the mind is prepared to enter into a dream world, and a surrealistic labyrinth unfolds. Buildings that evoke nonsense, doors that open up to nothing, stairs that lead to the sky, and concrete flowers that grow along with natural ones.

The architecture of Las Pozas represents an artistic and sculptural surrealistic group inspired in both orchids and the vegetation of the Huasteca Potosina. It combines representative elements of the surrealistic movement in which Edward James was so immersed. A Shrangri-la; a fusion of organic and artificial, between jungle and concrete, thus achieving a fusion of two worlds into one.

• Las Pozas is the most important cultural project on which the Pedro and Elena Foundation (Fundación Pedro and Elena Hernandéz, A.C.) has worked.

• The Foundation has taken on the conservation of the garden´s sculptures in accordance with the guidelines established by the National Institute of Fine Arts (Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes).

• On November 23, 2012, the sculpture group was declared a National Artistic Monument.

• Visitors come from all over the world and the site receives more than 100,000 annually.

 

 

The origin of Las Pozas goes back to 1947 when Edward James (who lived in a form of exile in the United States) purchased a coffee plantation near Xilitla, San Luis Potosi, and registered it in the name of Plutarco Gastelum, his close friend. Together they created Las Pozas. During the first years Edward James kept Las Pozas as a plantation for his fabulous orchid collection and as a home for his different animal species (deer, ocelots, snakes, flamingos and other birds). In 1962, after an unprecedented frost destroyed a large portion of Edward James plantation, he began the construction of the sculptural garden we know today. More than 150 persons worked on the project including, carpenters, bricklayers and gardeners. The construction was halted in 1984, year in which Edward James passed away. It was not until 1991 that the doors of the garden were opened to the public.

The “sculptural group of Las Pozas” is located on a piece of land situated in Xilitla near La Conchita. Its surface covers almost nine hectare of garden, where one can find 27 buildings, structures and sculptures and another 27 hectare of natural landscape.

Some of the most representative buildings and sculptures are:

The movie theater: here movies were to be projected for the Xilitla inhabitants. Edward James said that to look through the arch was like having a permanent screen for the garden.

Don Eduardo´s Square: James christened the square San Isidro to honor the huge tree, which grew there. Later the workers re-christened it Don Eduardo´s square because it was here that they received their pay.

The Bamboo Palace: James called it “the tower of hope” and said that one day it would be his home.

Between 1964 and 1967 the renowned painter Leonora Carrington visited the garden, and as testimony left a 0.90 by 2.55 al fresco painted mural. The mural is a figure with human feminine traits and a zoomorphic head and is to be found in Plutarco Gastélum´s house, now converted into an hotel, El Castillo. It is the house in which Edward James stayed on his visits to Xilitla. The mural is a significant work of the painter in Mexico and due to its

 

artistic characteristics it melted quite naturally into the surrealistic surroundings of this place inhabited by Edward James.

In 2007 the Pedro y Elena Hernandéz Foundation, A.C. acquired Las Pozas with the intention of preserving the sculptures and protecting the ecosystem.

In 2012 the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA) declared the garden an artistic monument for investing it with relevant aesthetic values. The affairs of the sculpture garden are guided by the regulations of the Federal Law for Monuments, and Archeological, Artistic and Historical zones. (Ley Federal sobre Monumentos y Zonas Arqueológicos, Artísticas e Históricas.) The regulations support efforts for global recognition and for acceding to global programs for the protection of relevant monuments and the preservation of the nation’s artistic heritage.

The Pedro y Elena Hernandez Foundation, apart from being in charge of receiving the more than 100 thousand visitors who come each year also work on the following:

• Conserving and restoring the sculptures • Conserving and restoring the garden • Conserving and restoring the 37 hectares of natural areas belonging to the property.

Some recommendations for your visit:

• The days with fewer visitors are Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. • The months with fewer crowds are January, February, September and October. • The average temperature in the area is 22 degrees Celsius, with a maximum of 38

degrees Celsius and a minimum of 4 degrees Celsius. Xilitla is the part of San Luis Potosi, which receives the heaviest rainfall.

Edward James Born on August 16, 1907 in Scotland into a family who possessed an immense fortune and a heritage of great luxury and privilege. His baptismal godfather was King Edward VII. He spent his infancy and part of his adolescence in West Dean Castle in West Sussex, England. (Presently one of the most prestigious colleges for art and conservation in the world). He studied literature in Oxford and that is how he became involved in the world of arts. He met artists such as the British poet John Betjeman and he also met Randolph Churchill. Edward James’ life style imitated the surrealistic art he so loved. He turned his back on the rigid circles of British aristocracy, preferring to mingle with and give economic support to a dozen artists who, in time, would come to be great artistic figures such as: Dalí, René Magritte and Stravinsky. He wrote poetry all his life but it was in the construction of the monuments in Las Pozas where he found his own artistic fulfillment. While staying in Los Angeles there arose in him a longing to find an idyllic home where he could give himself up to writing and to his poetry. In 1944 he visited Cuernavaca, Morelos and this trip marked the beginning of the construction of James masterpiece, which is to be found in the Huasteca Potosina.

  In Cuernavaca’s telegraph office James met and employed as his guide Plutarco Gastélum, a Mexican from the state of Sonora in whom both Basque and Yaqui blood flowed. In time Gastélum became James’ right hand man and friend in an unending journey that would be the Sculptural Garden of Las Pozas. That is how James became part of Plutarco Gastélum and his wife Marina Llamazares’ family. Some of the people with whom James had a close relationship were: Dalí, René Magritte, Leonora Carrington, Elsa Schiaparelli, Coco Chanel, Niki de Saint Phalle, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Isamu Noguchi, and Henry Moore, among others. Edward James passed away in northern Italy. His heritage to the world was some of the most exceptional architectural constructions of the XX century.

 Poem  written  by  Edward  James  in  his  cabin  situated  in  the  Sculptural  Garden:    THIS SHELL My house grows like the chamber’d nautilus; after a storm opens a larger room from my intenser childhood’s sleeping-place where curled, my head to chest, I felt the grace of the first need to grow. My house has wings and sometimes, in the dead of night, she sings. The shadows of the palm-leaves on the stone have with jade evening fingers longer grown- and now my house, by storms of sorrow bathed,

without is washed-so that the sinking sun makes shine her dark, wide roof of words and pearl. Deep house, your heart wants in the dusk to furl! The deluge comes. The storm, still after me, thirsts for my light. It strikes to swallow up the flame of my identity. This house is all assuaged and waiting for that sea whose child I am; nor, thunder, do you cease; but the high windows, drowned, break and drink peace.

                                                                                                                                                                                   Sculpture  Garden  Las  Pozas,  Xilitla,  San  Luis  Potosí  Opening  times:  9.00  to  18.00  Monday  to  Sunday  Entrance:                      Adults  $70.00  Children  under  6  years  and  old-­‐age  pensioners    $35.00  Tourist  Guide:      $200.00  Spanish,  $250.00  English  and  French.  Tour  lasts  1  hour  15mins.  We  have  restaurant  service.    Fundación  Pedro  y  Elena  Hernández,  A.C.    www.pedroyelena.org