The sunken school is a project by Iván Martínez that digs deep into the history of a middle school located on the outskirts of Mexico City. In the early eighties, the unstable ground, which in pre-colonial times was a lake, started swallowing the school, sinking it and drowning it in water. As the ground devoured the buildings, it also devoured the project of public education. 

 

This overwhelming image, recorded as an imprint in the artist's memories, became a juncture, a turning point when thinking of the overall landscape of the country: a building covered with water, floating pieces of furniture, garbage everywhere. Years later, and departing from this personal and intimate image that was constantly present, Martínez decided to investigate and inquire the history of the place. The sunken school, erased by time, and as a symptom of how the country copes with its issues, is now a soccer field. 

 

Martínez began a journey to recover the local history of the school, the shared history of his upbringings in the periphery of the city. When searching for documentation, neither the government's archives and files nor the old newspapers had information about the school whatsoever. 

 

Through neighbors of the site, he was able to follow the thread of the story and contact former students and teachers. To recover the history of the sunken school suddenly meant a deception. No big earthquake, no mythic story, no big disaster had swallowed the building –it was politics, it was corruption.