Jill Magid, the American artist who made a diamond ring out of Luis Barragán's ashes, has released a film documenting her preoccupation with the Mexican architect.
Called The Proposal, the 86-minute movie explores Magid's plan to bring home the late architect's archive and make it publicly accessible.
The film premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and is rolling out in public cinemas across the US this summer. It marks the final output of Magid's multi-year project called The Barragán Archives, which explores the rights to Barragán's works.
Barragán, who died in 1988, is one of Mexico's most important architects and is best known for his brightly coloured houses.
In 1995, his archive was bought by Rolf Fehlbaum, owner of Swiss furniture brand Vitra, who gave it to his fianceé at the time, Federica Zanco, as a wedding present. Today, the archive is housed on the Vitra campus in Germany and is almost inaccessible to the public.
Artist "offers body" of Barragán in return for body of work
The Proposal follows New York-based Magid as she embarks on a trip to Mexico City, where she ends up staying in the architect's house, Casa Barragán.
The visit prompts the artist to devise a way to bring the architect's archives back to Mexico. Her idea is to use Barragán's cremated remains to form a diamond ring to give to Zanco in exchange for the material.
Artist Jill Magid hopes to exchange a diamond ring made from Barragán's ashes for his body of work
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