About MACBA
MACBA - Museum of Contemporary Art
MACBA – Museum of Contemporary Art – opened its doors on September 1st 2012. Mission. The mission of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires (MACBA) is to acquire, preserve, investigate, document, communicate and exhibit national and international contemporary art. Non-formal education through art is one of its main purposes. Through the exhibition of artistic content (objects and narratives) hopes to encourage the development of creativity in artists and different audiences of the city of Buenos Aires and the country, and deepen the knowledge of Argentine art abroad. MACBA is intended as a forum for reflection and access to the different trends in contemporary art and, in particular, geometric abstraction, given its historical importance locally and globally. This tendency marks the profile of its collection, shall be the primary object of study and research. Education through art and social inclusion is its objective in the short and the long term. To that end, it plans to work in constant contact with public institutions and nongovernmental organizations that identify with its values. MACBA seeks to have a distinctive role, marked by accessibility to art in the context of the community it serves. Vision. In order to carry out its mission, MACBA plans to organize exhibitions at its headquarters and itinerant exhibitions, primarily in the different provincial capitals. As part of the educational and cultural outreach of exhibitions, each will feature guided tours, lectures and symposiums given by renowned professionals. Concerts, film and performances are planned in relation to exhibitions and also as independent agendas. A specific training program in contemporary art curatorship is expected to develop through alliances with universities and specialized research centers. MACBA hopes to train young curators and encourage critical reflection on interaction with foreign counterparts; study and document its own collection and in this way spread the knowledge of international art in Argentina. MACBA will provide special support to young Argentine artists, enabling them to share their work regularly through exhibitions, clinics and incentives for production in the form of prizes, contest and purchase of works. Collection. Aldo Rubino began collecting in the late 80s. Over the years he defined a profile based on local and international contemporary art with special emphasis on geometric abstraction. Nevertheless, expansion to other languages is expected as part of the dynamism of the whole collection. Indeed, MACBA considers its heritage as a social capital that realizes the appreciation that Argentina has had historically and continues to have in the present for collecting international art. The public display of this collection enhances the cosmopolitan character that Buenos Aires has unfolded since its colonial roots. The importance of geometric abstraction in Argentina, justifies the existence of a collection which proposes to chronicle, enhance and contextualize it. Currently, the museum owns works of the most representative trends of international geometry. Of historical Argentinean concrete artists: Enio Iommi (1926), Gyula Kosice (1924), and Raúl Lozza (1911-2008). Of later generations in the sixties and seventies, Ary Brizzi (1930), Rogelio Polesello (1939) and Alejandro Puente (1933), representatives of optical art, and "sensible geometry", respectively. Their European contemporaries, Italians from the Arte Programmata (Programmed Art), Toni Costa (1935), Alberto Biasi (1937) and Dadamaino (1930-2004), along with the German group Zero with works by Heinz Mack (1931) and Walter Leblanc (1932-1986), and the French-Argentine GRAV (Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel), active in Paris between 1960 and 1968, with Julio Le Parc (1928), Joel Stein (1926), and Francisco Sobrino (1932). Also the masters of kinetics Victor Vasarely (Hungry, 1906 - France, 1997) and Venezuelan Carlos Cruz-Diez (1923) are present with representative works. Of different American schools, the geometry called “Hard Edge” is represented by Californian artists such as Lorser Feitelson (1898-1978), Frederick Hammersley (1919-2009), and Karl Benjamin (1925). While in the New York School we highlight the works of Leon Polk Smith (1906-1996), Ilya Bolotowsky (1907-1981) and Tadasky (1935 ). The collection also includes prominent post-concrete Brazilian artists such as Lothar Charoux (1912-1987), Almir da Silva Mavignier (1925), João José Costa da Silva (1931), and contemporary miner Marcos Coelho Benjamim (1952). Among the works of contemporary Argentine artists, Pablo Siquier (1961), Guillermo Kuitca (1961) and Karina Peisajovich (1966) outstand in this rich body of works.
ARCHITECTURAL PROJECTThe Museo de Arte Contemporáneo is placed in the historical center, the San Telmo neighborhood, in the south of the city. Residing at 328, San Juan Avenue, in 2011 this area was declared the "Art’s District" by the Government of the City along with the neighborhoods of La Boca and part of Barracas. Thus, MACBA is enrolled in an area of great tourist attraction next to the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, the antiques fair in San Telmo, and the churches and mansions of the late eighteenth century that are preserved in the Buenos Aires. The building, designed by the studio Vila Sebastian Arquitectos in 2010 consists of 7 floors and 3 lower levels. Adjacent to MAMBA, its main façade is a glazed plane of 15 x 12 meters. This curtain wall gives a transparency that enables the connection of the interior with the exterior. Solved with a concrete structure and a skin of glass, the museum reflects a minimalist and contemporary image, according to the collection it houses. The distinct volume of the building has two multiple height spaces, one at the entrance and one at the back that allows the entry of natural light in the lower levels which, combined with artificial lighting, provides adequate visibility to the exhibition galleries. The museum occupies a total of 1500 m2 divided into galleries of 40 meters. Each floor, with their respective sanitation services, is connected by a ramp which facilitates circulation and is complemented with a lift with maximum capacity of 10 people. The building has artificial ventilation and air conditioning at all levels, in compliance with international standards for the display of works of art. The floors are made of American oak and lighting is in charge of the German company ERCO.
