Longer notes from the road, from Mexico and northern Italy.
Ten Februaries in Mexico City
I've spent the first week of February in Mexico City for ten years now. Here's how I put that week together, and why we'll be living at Xoma for it.
Every February, for about a week, it feels like the whole art world moves to Mexico City. The fairs are what bring everyone here. What makes people fall in love with the city is everything happening around them: the dinners, the openings, the artists' studios, the architecture, and the chance meeting that ends up being the best story of the trip.
I've been doing this week for ten years, and it's still the work I'm proudest of. It's the one time of year when I can build something you really couldn't put together on your own. In 2027 I'm sharing it with one small group of collectors and people who love art. We're calling it the México Salon, and it runs from February 1 to 8.
How the week comes together
We start with the fairs: Zona Maco, Material and Salón ACME. In 2027 there's something new, too. Alcova, the design platform from Milan, is coming to Mexico City for the first time, and they always find spaces that are as interesting as the work they show.
Then the studios, which for me are the real privilege of the week. Sitting with an artist in the place where they work is something no fair can give you.
We also go into private homes. We visit Luis Barragán's Casa Pedregal, and one evening we have dinner in a collector's penthouse that is hung like a museum. For me, that dinner is the highlight of the week.
The museums get the same treatment. The director of the Museo Nacional de Antropología takes us through it personally, and we go out to Diego Rivera's Anahuacalli, which is half temple and half fortress and unlike anything else in the city.
And of course we eat. Five lunches and five dinners, everything from stools at a taquería to a candlelit hacienda from 1905. Nobody goes home hungry.
Where we stay
Art week is a marathon. You're out from the morning fairs to the last dinner, so where you sleep matters more than people think. You want a place that feels like your own, not a room you drop your bags in. For seven nights, ours is Xoma by Viadora, in Roma Norte.
I picked it for the building first. Xoma was designed by Belzberg Architects, from Los Angeles, together with Neme Design Studio. The façade is made of curved concrete-block "sails" that local masons set by hand, so it's a very modern building that still feels completely Mexican. It won a 2022 AIA Los Angeles Design Award and Interior Design's 2022 Best of Year award in the boutique hotel category, and it has been featured in Architectural Record.
There are no standard rooms, only suites, and every one has tall ceilings, windows from floor to ceiling, lots of light and its own balcony. The one-bedrooms are almost 700 square feet, with a king bed, a marble bathroom with a deep tub and a proper living room. The two-bedrooms start at 1,300 square feet, with a king, two queens and two full bathrooms, which makes them perfect for couples or friends coming together.
It's also one of the few hotels in the city with a rooftop pool. You can swim up there in the morning before the fairs open, or go up for a drink at sunset before dinner. Everything else you'd want is there too: a concierge, daily housekeeping, a gym and a restaurant downstairs. And you walk out the door into Roma Norte, the easiest neighborhood in the city to get around on foot, full of cafés, cocktail bars, little shops and galleries. By the third night it really does feel like home, and that's where every evening ends.
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