Templo Mayor — Mexico City

‘Memoria Luminosa’ was a light and sound show produced by Maizz Visual on the Zócalo, Mexico City’s central square, marking 500 years since the fall of Tenochtitlan. It was projected onto all four faces of a 1:3 scale model of the great pyramid of the Templo Mayor, the Huey Teocalli — 16 metres high, 25.81 metres wide and 27 metres deep.

Maizz Visual produced the show and led an international team of 20; the sound came from the Sontrack studio. RE:SORB created most of the complex 3D content, and Stefan Ihmig was on site in Mexico City and created the mapping.

In 16 minutes and 22 scenes, on a narrative text by Mexico City’s Ministry of Culture, the show told the story from the legendary origins of the Mexica people and the growth of the city to the conquest of Tenochtitlan — the struggle of the Aztec people against the Spanish invasion and the destruction of their culture. Most scenes were 3D animation; the Conquest block was mainly 2D animation on fragments of murals and paintings by Mexican artists such as Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco.

Four 30,000-lumen Panasonic laser projectors on six-metre towers lit the model, one for each face. The show opened on 13 August 2021, was extended by two weekends beyond its planned close on 29 August, and drew thousands of people to the square.

The project continues RE:SORB’s work in Mexico, which includes mappings on the Torre Latinoamericana in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Credits

• Production, 2D and 3D animation: Maizz Visual
• Narrative text: Secretaría de Cultura, Mexico City
• Most of the complex 3D content: RE:SORB
• On-site mapping: Stefan Ihmig / RE:SORB
• Sound: Sontrack