El Helicoide: From Mall to Prison

Built in the late 1950s as a state-of-the-art, drive-in mall, El Helicoide was never completed and went through decades of abandonment, failed private and public projects, and informal occupations until the security police took it over in 1985. Now a ruin, the building epitomizes modernity's utopic dreams and its dystopian reality, ultimately presenting the dark side of modernity in Latin America.

Terreform/Urban Research will launch the publication of From Mall to Prison: El Helicoide's Downward Spiral, a book about the building, in conjunction with the exhibition. Edited by exhibition curator Celeste Olalquiaga and Lisa Blackmore, the book is a profusely-illustrated history and analytical commentary on El Helicoide.

Curated and designed  by: Celeste Olalquiaga