For a few days at the end of June, a landmark former firehouse in Lower Manhattan became all of Ecuador at once, the Amazon and the Andes and the Galápagos and the Pacific coast packed into a single walk-through. The exhibition was called Casa Ecuador, and it was first reported by Noticia.
Casa Ecuador is a project of The Embassy of Nature, an international group that promotes ecosystem conservation. It took over the Engine 31 building at 87 Lafayette St. and turned the space into a tour of the four ecosystems that define Ecuador, with immersive rooms devoted to the Amazon, the Galápagos Islands, the Sierra highlands and the coast.
The staging leaned on materials from the country itself. Toquilla straw, the fiber woven into what the rest of the world calls the Panama hat, stood in for the tropical landscapes. Red roses, one of Ecuador’s signature export crops, evoked the Andean region. Audiovisual projections and ambient sound filled in the rest, the whole thing built to hit every sense at once.
This was not the exhibition’s first stop. Casa Ecuador has already traveled to Paris, Madrid and Abu Dhabi. Its New York run landed during the World Cup, when the soccer world’s attention was on the city and on Ecuador’s national team, La Tri, which faced Germany at the New York New Jersey Stadium.
Luis Felipe Fernández-Salvador, an explorer and filmmaker who founded The Embassy of Nature and carries the title Marqués de Lises, framed the project as a conservation argument dressed up as a cultural showcase. “The greatest mistake of humanity was to believe that nature was simply a resource,” he told Noticia. “It’s not a resource. It’s the infrastructure of civilization. Without it there’s no economy. There are no institutions.” He said he wants to expand the concept with future editions like Casa USA and Casa España.
The opening ceremony, held on a Wednesday morning, drew Ecuadorian officials and a few boldface guests: Argentine soccer legend Javier Mascherano, actor Woody Harrelson and Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Navarro. Fernández-Salvador handed Harrelson a key honoring his support for the project.
Mascherano told Noticia he was proud to back the initiative and said the World Cup gave it an ideal moment for visibility. “Protecting nature is always important,” he said. “I think we all have to take responsibility for caring for nature.” He added that he would like to see a Casa Argentina someday, dedicated to his own country’s landscapes.
Beyond the conservation pitch, Casa Ecuador aimed to be a gathering point for New York’s large Ecuadorian community. Gicela Andrade Valens, Ecuador’s consul general in New York, said more than half a million Ecuadorians live in the city. “For us this is a source of pride. Casa Ecuador shows the best of Ecuador, and it’s a place where people can feel at home again, even when they’re far away,” she said. “Here in New York they can find a corner of Ecuador and experience their four worlds: the coast, the Sierra, the Amazon and Galápagos.”
Andrade Valens also tied the opening to the World Cup, saying the crowds of fans dressed in yellow meant La Tri essentially played at home. “With the community we have, the stadiums are full of Ecuadorians. It’s like playing at home,” she said.
Fernández-Salvador said he hoped the exhibition would spark curiosity in people who had never been to Ecuador. “In just half an hour they’ll be able to visit four worlds that will truly captivate them and, probably, make them want to see Ecuador.” Harrelson, a close friend of the founder, called it “a great honor” to be there. “I’ve always been excited about what he’s doing and how much he cares about Mother Nature and Ecuador,” the actor said.
Featured image: Courtesy noticiany.com
