Apart from running temporary shows and permanently exhibiting its Latin American art collection, since July 2002 Malba has run a program to stimulate contemporary art, by offering support, and displaying the work of artists currently active in the region. The program consists of four shows a year, is financed by the Museum, and includes a budget specifically for the production of works. Contemporáneo revolves around commissioning invited curators who specialize in today’s artistic production, and are familiar with the Latin American visual arts scene. Each curator elaborates an exhibition project, putting forward the names of artists to be invited to participate in the experience.
The objectives of this program are: to create an arena for exchange and debate, and to make up-and-coming contemporary art visible; to support and encourage local expertise in curatorial practice, acknowledging its regional and international effects; to contribute to the institution’s dynamic relationship with the community by forming a public with an active relationship to contemporary art practice; and to fulfill an educational role in the field of contemporary art.
As with every exhibition, either temporary or permanent, this program comes with a free, mass-distributed publication, and an important series of educational activities carried out either in the very exhibition space, or in spaces specifically selected for the occasion and format.
During these first years of activity, ten exhibitions have already been held, involving artists from Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay and Brazil, as well as Latin American artists residing in Spain, the United States and Germany. Guest curators invited on these occasions cover an ample professional spectrum, including: artists, researchers, critics, professors, art historians and cultural managers, working not only in Buenos Aires, but also in other cities throughout the country. New or little-known works, or those already exhibited elsewhere; individual artists, artists’ groups and curators, every imaginable kind of material and support, and exhibition concepts in constant change, all contribute to continual variation in the program’s dynamic.
Intervention Program
Keeping with today’s visual arts scene, in 2002, Malba initiated this program —the only one of its kind in Argentina— which fulfils the institutional role of encouraging and enhancing artists’ productive potential. An artist is invited to carry out a project, specifically for the Museum, which must fit the definition of an “intervention” in its physical and/or symbolic space. The work is wholly financed by Malba, and remains on exhibit for six months. This program aims among other things to offer the opportunity to work on scales, with materials, dimensions, and production values normally impracticable in the region. Malba provides its own architectural space, a production budget, and its operational and logistical capacity for the project’s completion. The following interventions have been carried out to date:
Intervención 1: Román Vitali.
Luz (Light). From October 17, 2002 to May 26, 2003.
Sectors involved: access hall, sala 1, first and second floor galleries, central space.
Intervención 2: Cristina Schiavi.
La toma (The Takeover). From September 19, 2003 to March 31, 2004.
Sectors involved: panoramic elevator and access hall.
Intervención 3: Hernán Marina.
Coloso (Colossus). From August 26, 2004 to May 2, 2005.
Sector involved: central space.
