The Giant Lizards of the Zócalo. Report on the Exhibition Huellas de la Vida: Un Viaje en la Historia de Nuestro Planeta (Traces of Life: A Journey through the History of Our Planet)

Abstract

Review of the palaeontology exhibition Huellas de la vida: un viaje en la historia de nuestro planeta, organized by the Museo del Desierto, Saltillo, and the Distrito Federal Goverment (GDF), which was shown at the Plaza de la Constitución, Zócalo, Mexico City from May 23rd  to August 30th 2009. It focuses on the ambivalence regarding the cultural and leisure use of public spaces employed for popular mass spectacles, as well as the exposition discourse,s rigor and flexibility devoted to the dissemination of palaeontology, analyzing the potential neutrality of this discipline and its public representation. It also explores the tension of the museographic discourse regarding authentic objects and reproductions, including the paradoxes exposed by exhibitions concerning the past that are related to contemporary public issues.