plastic cups, cheetos in resin, and mannequins become new-age mexican baroque artworks

everyday market objects are reconfigured into sculptural architectural installations.

Tamayo edited by christina vergopoulou June 19, 2026 3 min

Market Objects Become Contemporary Baroque Ornaments

Alburrigueresco is an artistic research and material production project by Mexican artist and architect Alfredo Tamayo. The work reinterprets elements of Mexican Baroque architecture through contemporary commercial objects and materials associated with informal trade. The public art roject emerges from the observation of downtown Mexico City, where viceregal architecture coexists with a dense saturation of goods, colors, temporary structures, and popular economies.

Rather than using traditional architectural materials, the project works with objects commonly found in markets, street stalls, food businesses, and commercial displays: plastic cups, laminated packaging, Cheetos encapsulated in resin, mannequins, printed tablecloths, metal frames, grids, and other low-cost urban materials. Through their reconfiguration, these objects become architectural fragments such as pediments, moldings, columns, estípites, niches, and ornamental details. These fragments operate as meta-architectures: structures that do not attempt to faithfully reproduce historical Baroque architecture, but instead activate its visual logics of excess, ornament, theatricality, and accumulation within a contemporary urban context.

plastic cups, cheetos in resin, and mannequins become new-age mexican baroque artworks - 1 — all images by Gerardo Torres

Temporary Installations Reinterpret the Urban Landscape

The project by Mexican artist and architect Alfredo Tamayo unfolds through ephemeral interventions in public space. Temporarily installed in plazas and streets across Mexico City’s historic center, the works create visual frictions between architectural heritage, informal commerce, and contemporary material culture. Their presence interrupts the everyday flow of the city and invites passersby to look again at the objects, textures, and signs that shape the urban landscape. Alburrigueresco proposes ornament not as a residue of the past, but as an active strategy of attraction, identity, desire, and communication within popular urban life. Each intervention functions as an autonomous chapter within an ongoing investigation into architecture, consumption, collective memory, and contemporary Baroque aesthetics.

plastic cups, cheetos in resin, and mannequins become new-age mexican baroque artworks - 2 — Alburrigueresco is a temporary public intervention in Mexico City’s historic center

plastic cups, cheetos in resin, and mannequins become new-age mexican baroque artworks - 3 — plastic, food in resin, and market objects become architectural elements

plastic cups, cheetos in resin, and mannequins become new-age mexican baroque artworks - 4 — the project draws inspiration from the visual landscape of downtown Mexico City

alburrigueresco-alfredo-tamayo-plastic-cups-cheetos-resin-mannequins-mexican-baroque-artworks-designboom-1800-3 — low-cost urban objects are reconfigured into sculptural architectural fragments

plastic cups, cheetos in resin, and mannequins become new-age mexican baroque artworks - 5 — plastic cups, printed tablecloths, and metal grids form ornamental compositions

plastic cups, cheetos in resin, and mannequins become new-age mexican baroque artworks - 6 — the installations create dialogue between heritage architecture and informal trade

alburrigueresco-alfredo-tamayo-plastic-cups-cheetos-resin-mannequins-mexican-baroque-artworks-designboom-1800-2 — the installations reference the visual excess of Mexican Baroque architecture

plastic cups, cheetos in resin, and mannequins become new-age mexican baroque artworks - 7 — ephemeral interventions occupy plazas and streets across Mexico City’s historic center

plastic cups, cheetos in resin, and mannequins become new-age mexican baroque artworks - 8 — Cheetos encapsulated in resin become part of the architectural vocabulary

plastic cups, cheetos in resin, and mannequins become new-age mexican baroque artworks - 9 — the project explores ornament through accumulation, color, and material contrast

plastic cups, cheetos in resin, and mannequins become new-age mexican baroque artworks - 10 — popular market materials are transformed into contemporary architectural forms

plastic cups, cheetos in resin, and mannequins become new-age mexican baroque artworks - 11 — temporary structures introduce new readings of the historic urban landscape

project info:

name: Alburrigueresco
designer: Alfredo Tamayo Cortés

location: Mexico City

photographer: Gerardo Torres

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