All cities contain within them those who preceded them. One can attempt to track them down by their remains, but this is almost always an exercise reserved for the pleasure of the imagination. That's exactly what technical artist Thomas Kole (Zeist, Netherlands, 29 years old) was doing as he virtually walked the streets of Mexico City when he realized that nothing he observed would ever be enough to describe this other city rebuild. buried under today's: the great Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire. Far from giving up his efforts, he gave himself over to the cause and, a year and a half later, produced the most faithful 3D reconstruction of the ancient metropolis known. Without leaving home, Kole crossed the Atlantic into the past and, using technology, landed in the Americas of 1518, the height before the Spanish conquest.
Digital reconstruction of the Sacred Precinct containing the Great Temple at the epicenter of the city. Thomas Kole
“It was completely new territory for me. I don't even know how I found the topic, there is no catalyst. But I think once you read about it, you're hooked. “The idea got stuck in my head and it was impossible to get it out,” says the artist. Although he was dedicated to programming, he was always fascinated by history, and a few clicks here and there resulted in a project that expressed his fascination. “Tenochtitlan surprised me in many ways: its size, its organization, its structure. Very nice things have been written about her. Its natural state, on a lake and surrounded by volcanic mountains, really stimulates the imagination,” he reasons.
Kole had never traveled to Mexico until this week. He doesn't speak Spanish either. But his obsession is reflected in the verses that the Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal – also a foreigner and, like him, captivated by the beauty of this lakeside city – wrote many decades ago: “But how do you write the hieroglyph again, / paint that Jaguar again, overthrowing the tyrants? / Rebuild our tropical acropolises, / our rural capitals surrounded by cornfields?” Answering these questions almost verbatim, as Kole suggested, required extensive documentation and an effort to get rid of the preconceptions that, in his opinion, invade an education and archives, in which the European perspective predominates.
Kole, at his computer in front of a picture in which the two largest volcanoes in the valley can be seen in the background.Marc Driessen
For a year and a half he combined the development of this project, which he carried out in his free time at his home in Amersfoort, with his work for a company that develops installations and interactive games for museums and other places. His history and knowledge of video games ensured that the project remained within manageable parameters: “Games have to be fast, optimization is very important, so I used a lot of their tricks.” There is a great sense of detail that is only available at drone distance functions. “When you get closer, it looks like an impressionist painting.” Each element that appears in the project has had at least five versions before the final version.
The result is an impressive journey through time. In the background, the Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl volcanoes crown a landscape that is rarely visible from the city due to pollution. The extinct sacred precinct, restored to its original state along with its imposing main temple – the most difficult part for Kole due to its symbolic value and centrality – captures the view of a city built around it with rectangular plots that reveal the hierarchies of the Time. The 200,000 inhabitants of the metropolis were divided into quarters that had their own markets, schools and workshops in the style of the colonies of today's city. Like little ants on the ground, they can be seen strolling through the streets of this rebuilt empire with their shopping baskets and cotton clothes.
“The division into grids makes sense when you're on the water because you have to actively shape the terrain, you can't stick a stick and draw a line in the sand,” says Kole, who remains doubtful about the placement of some elements . “I'm still trying to figure out why some streets are arranged in a completely random direction. I think it could be due to the impact of the natural flow of water, which is very difficult to divert, but I'm not sure,” he speculates.
Digital reconstruction of the Templo Mayor at dawn. Thomas Kole
His doubts add to those of the experts. He thought his job was to translate an ancient map about which there was some consensus into virtual reality, but that map doesn't exist. “I quickly realized that no one agreed,” he summarizes. Despite the archaeological and historical sources and the multitude of plans, the greatest emphasis was placed on direct consultation with the specialists to whom he presented his proposals. “If someone were to do the reconstruction in 10 years, it would certainly be different because there will be new information,” he admits.
Kole wanted to involve the Mexican people in some way and to do this he contacted several collaborators, always electronically, just like this interview, which was conducted from Mexico. The three local artists who collaborated with him were responsible for photographing the current state of the city – Andrés Semo García –; the creation of the Tenochtitlan glyph that opens the site – Chicome Itzcuintli Amatlapalli (My Mexica Heart) –; and to translate the descriptions accompanying the images from English into Spanish and into the main variant of Nahuatl, the largest indigenous language in Mexico – Rodrigo Ortega Acoltzi. “I was surprised that when translated, some paragraphs were half as long because Nahuatl is very efficient at talking about certain things, and others were twice as long because it was completely inefficient,” he says. In this old language, but new to him, he is particularly attracted to the prefix po, which means smoke and “recurs in many ways”: Popocatépetl, Chipotle, …
His friends and colleagues find it funny that “a random guy” from the Netherlands “did something like that,” although for him the connection between Nahuatl and Dutch is much closer than it seems and is present in many everyday words, such as “tomato “, is present or avocado. This project was born out of pure inspiration and he doesn't know when or what the next one will be or what country or era it will take him to. At the moment his horizon is to present his project for the first time this Friday in the city that today houses the other one that moved him and that continues to build bridges between the two sides of the Atlantic. This other foreigner, in love with Mexico and with the surname Cardenal, has already said it: “Tenochtitlan is there, even without adobe. / Still turned into a network of holes. / It remains in the vision of its poets.” Even with those who awaken it from lethargy.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_