Las Pozas the surrealist sculptural garden of Edward James

Only a surrealist, eccentric and imaginative poet like the British patron Edward James could have conceived and brought to life the Sculpture Garden that emerges from the tangled jungle of the Huasteca Potosina, an extraordinary landscape region in the north-eastern part of Mexico where the indigenous language of the Huaxtechi people is still spoken. James chose this naturalistic backdrop of waterfalls and ponds, ideal for making visitors participate in his botanical and at the same time dreamlike adventure, accompanying them inside a precisely surreal labyrinth created by creating buildings, sculptures, structures without an apparent and obvious architectural logic, climbing stairs and opening doors that lead to discovering blooming flowers and leaves clinging to concrete frames. In 1947, the artist bought a coffee plantation near Xilitla, near San Luis Potosí, registering it under the name of Plutarco Gastélum, the man who would give concrete form to his botanical intuitions and abstractions. Nowadays, jungle and installations have merged, blending together, swallowing up and at the same time enriching the collection of orchids loved by James. There are also many animals that now inhabit Las Pozas, including deer and flamingos.