Marta Palau: The Flight of Quetzalcoatlus

In 2003, for the exhibition “Zoologías fantásticas (Fantastic Zoologies)” artist Marta Palau (Albesa, Spain, 1934 – Mexico City, 2022) recreated a flying creature whose fossil had been discovered by Douglas A. Lawson in 1971 at Big Bend National Park in Texas and named “Quetzalcoatlus.” Always drawn to mythologies and rituals, Palau produced a kind of flying reptile using the materials that characterize her work: branches, reeds, amate paper, among others.

The piece—nearly 10 meters long—was incorporated into the Museo Universitario del Chopo’s art collection and, since then, remained in careful storage. In 2025, as part of the program commemorating the Museum’s 50th anniversary, the work has been unfolded, opened, and examined in terms of conservation. To address its material condition and ensure its permanence over time, in line with its historical and artistic value, we invited Pictórica Taller to undertake a public conservation process. Visitors will be able to witness live the cleaning, structural stabilization, and chromatic and formal reintegration of its elements, along with other conservation treatments. These processes are usually carried out in laboratories and workshops closed to the public; however, consistent with the Museo Universitario del Chopo’s experimental vocation of exploring new forms of engagement with its visitors and communities, we are opening these tasks to make visible the professional practice of restoration applied to a work from our collection.

Once the conservation process for this piece—part of the University’s Heritage—has been completed, it will be installed again, after 22 years, to celebrate its symbolic flight.