Turning 40 is more than just a number: it’s an opportunity to reflect honestly and project with ambition. In 2026, the Franz Mayer Museum celebrates four decades of life with a program that dialogues with its history—the collector, the building, and the design—and with the concerns of the present. For travelers arriving in Mexico City searching for cultural keys, the Franz turns out to be a place where the past is not preserved intact: it is activated, questioned, and transformed into experience.
Exhibitions will take place throughout 2026. Specific dates will be announced in the museum’s calendar.
1. Germany in the Franz Mayer Collection
The anniversary finds its core here. Nearly 300 objects collected by Franz Mayer during the first half of the 20th century return to center stage: silverware, wastebaskets, books, and utensils that reveal an obsessive attention to detail and quality. More than a tribute, this exhibition functions as a silent autobiography of the founder and a gateway to understanding how a European perspective decisively influenced Mexican material culture.
2. Dürer: The First Viral Artist
Far from academic in tone, this exhibition offers a fresh reading of Albrecht Dürer as a precursor of global visual culture. With 36 pieces—the largest representation of the artist in the museum—the show presents Dürer as a strategist of the image, aware of its reproduction and circulation. Technological tools and contemporary resources connect the German Renaissance to the visual logic of the 21st century.
3. Soccer: Designing a Passion
In a World Cup year, the Franz enters the conversation from a rarely explored angle: design. Stadiums, signage, publications, jerseys, graphics, and objects form a journey through the nine tournaments held in the Americas. The exhibition gathers memorabilia and objects linked to figures such as Pelé, Diego Maradona, Hugo Sánchez, Lionel Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo, with design as the thread shaping this globally beloved spectacle.
4. Mockups before Fuckups
Here, mistakes are no longer taboo. Models, prototypes, and failed experiments reveal the craft behind design and celebrate the learning that occurs before the final object. The exhibition inaugurates new museum spaces dedicated to creative processes, emphasizing that design is also built through correction and doubt.
5. Animals and Fantastic Beings: Mexican Folk Ceramics
From the Ruth D. Lechuga Collection emerges a bestiary of 57 pieces spanning techniques, materials, and regions of Mexico. Folk ceramics appear here not as mere decorative craft but as a symbolic territory where the real and the imaginary coexist, offering visitors a profound insight into Mexican creativity.
6. AI: Beyond the Human
Originating from the Barbican Centre, this exhibition brings the Franz into decisively contemporary terrain. Immersive installations and interactive stations explore how artificial intelligence is transforming creative processes in art, design, and culture, raising questions about collaboration, authorship, and the future.
In 2026, the Franz Mayer Museum does more than celebrate its past: it puts it in dialogue with the present and projects it toward the future. For travelers exploring Mexico searching for more than postcards, the Franz emerges as a living space where design is memory, language, and possibility.
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