For this publication, Mexican artist Damián Ortega (*1967 in Mexico City) has put together a selection of drawings that he uses to plan his sculptures and their installation in space. These drawings  and designs are gathered together under the title Supervivencia de la Idea (Survival of the Idea), suggesting that, for Damián Ortega, the medium of drawing—in this case, particularly the designs for monumental scenarios—is as important as the realized works, if not more so. In these drawings, the work is made public, and is simultaneously declared as if copyrighted, by the artist. Hence, this selection of drawings for projects from 1991 to 2007 not only offers a retrospective survey of the development and conception of previous projects; it also documents an archive of ideas that, given the opportunity—as recently with the transportable obelisk in New York’s Central Park—can be executed when the time is right.
 
Exhibition schedule: Preis der Nationalgalerie für Junge Kunst, Hamburger Bahnhof and daadgalerie, Berlin, September 14–November 4, 2007