ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out on a long walk in Mexico City’s historical center in order to both analyze a case study and to cogitate on his fieldwork on contemporary arts in Mexico. The case study concerns an intriguing postcolonial architectural creation, the Kiosko Morisco or Moorish Kiosk, located in the colonia or neighborhood of Santa Maria La Ribera. The chapter then proceeds to introduce the peripatetic philosopher who will guide him in his analysis of the kiosk: Ibn Rushd, [Arabic in full Abū al-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Rushd, (born 1126, Córdoba [Spain] – died 1198, Marrakech, Almohad empire [now in Morocco]), also known as Averroës in the medieval Latin West. Elhaik’s fieldwork design – dubbed “curatorial design” – and case study enable him to both establish parallels between the kiosk and Averroës and illuminate a few blind spots in Hispanic, Latin American, and Maghreb studies.
