work in progress 2
Collecting museums / Collecting practices (working title)
work in progress by Sofia Dourron
The essay will first make an introduction to the topic of museums and collections from the perspective of Museums Studies, as developed by authors Tony Bennett and Carol Duncan, but also from the readings of Claire Bishop and Charles Esche. However, the main focus of the project will be to explore a looser, object and post-humanist driven hypothesis, that points to how the origins and different “shapes” some museums have adopted in Latin America, shapes that do not conform to the canon of the western modern museum, might also impact the shape and content of their collections, and thus hint towards other way of thinking about museums and collections.
The essay will analyze the following cases:
- Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires Argentina / The nomad museum The Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires was founded by municipal decree on April 1956. The decree stated that the museum would be housed in the San Martín Theatre, however, the theatre’s building was not completed until late 1960. For the next four years after its foundation the museum had no building, no collection and no budget, but yet, it existed. From an office in the attic of another museum, the Museum of Modern Art organized its first exhibition, a floating one on the first commercial cruise to depart from the port of Buenos Aires. Over time the museum moved to its assigned space and started building a collection, which much as its early nomadic history responded to the whim of its director, to the scarcity of resources and the willingness to build something out of nothing.
- Museum of Solidarity Salvador Allende, Santiago de Chile, Chile / The museum in exile Originally named Museum of Solidarity of Chile (1971-1973), later Museum of Resistance Salvador Allende (1975-1990) and finally Museum of Solidarity Salvador Allende (1990- today), was founded in 1971 in order to garner local and international support for the government of the political coalition Unidad Popular and the presidency of Salvador Allende, as well as for the people of Chile. With the president’s support an international committee was formed to make an international call for artists to donate works that would become the museum’s collection. Between 1972 and 1973 the museum received over 600 works from all over the world. However, after the military coup in September 1973, the museum was shut down, the local members had to leave the country, and much of the
collection either fell into military hands, was left to rot or managed to be disguised and exiled as well. In 1975 the museum regrouped and restarted operations, mainly from Cuba and Paris, only to return to Chile in 1990. Only in the last two decades this institution has managed to bring together most of its remaining collection.
- Museum of Art of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil / The transparent museum
The Museum of Art of Sao Paulo was founded by entrepreneur and collector Assis Chateaubriand in 1947 in order to exhibit his private collection. However, it wasn’t until 1968 when it opened the doors to its current and final building, designed by architect and designer Lina Bo Bardi. Located on the central Avenida Paulista, the museum constitutes one of the fundamental works of modern architecture in the region and a particular way of thinking the museum as a whole, integrating building, surroundings, collection and audiences into one organic and transforming unit. The collection is one of the largest and most important in the Americas, and it includes with about 10,000 pieces of art from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas including Brazil, from time periods spanning from antiquity to the 21st century and including paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, clothing and other media, all living together as one, integrated through Lina Bo Bardi’s building and museographic devices.
- The Mud Museum, Asunción, Paraguay / The popular museum
The Mud Museum originated from the initiative of artists Olga Blinder and Carlos Colombino, who in 1972, in the middle of a military dictatorship, created a moving exhibition of their private collections of prints and drawings which they called the Circulating Collection. With time the collection grew in size and in diversity, specially adding an important section of contemporary art and a collection of both popular and archeological ceramics (which lend their name to the institution), and other traditional forms of folk crafts, indigenous arts, and Jesuit and Franciscan wooden sculptures and carvings. It then needed a permanent space of exhibition, and became the Museo del Barro. Under the directorship of Ticio Escobar, all of these objects stand together as equal, avoiding traditional classification and exhibition canons, the museum is forced to rethink categories and ways of exhibiting that focus on artistic status without devoiding the objects of their histories and identities.
- The Transvestite Museum, Lima, Perú / The queer museum
The Transvestite Museum of Perú is a long standing project by artist Giuseppe Campuzano that defies the institutional canons for the construction of Peruvian history and identity. Its collections and activities have long researched the multidisciplinary trace of transvestism in Perú, in order to subvert the fragmentary and hygienist History, as well as the social norms that this form of history has created for current Peruvian society. The museum’s collection is formed by a variety of contemporary materials, which are constantly contrasted with prehispanic and modern history, with collective and individual stories and memories, and are looked at through a variety of points of view: postcolonial, queer and feminist studies, which seek to empower subaltern identities and communities.
The essay will first make an introduction to the topic of museums and collections from the perspective of Museums Studies, as developed by authors Tony Bennett and Carol Duncan, but also from the readings of Claire Bishop and Charles Esche. However, the main focus of the project will be to explore a looser, object and post-humanist driven hypothesis, that points to how the origins and different “shapes” some museums have adopted in Latin America, shapes that do not conform to the canon of the western modern museum, might also impact the shape and content of their collections, and thus hint towards other way of thinking about museums and collections.
The essay will analyze the following cases:
- Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires Argentina / The nomad museum The Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires was founded by municipal decree on April 1956. The decree stated that the museum would be housed in the San Martín Theatre, however, the theatre’s building was not completed until late 1960. For the next four years after its foundation the museum had no building, no collection and no budget, but yet, it existed. From an office in the attic of another museum, the Museum of Modern Art organized its first exhibition, a floating one on the first commercial cruise to depart from the port of Buenos Aires. Over time the museum moved to its assigned space and started building a collection, which much as its early nomadic history responded to the whim of its director, to the scarcity of resources and the willingness to build something out of nothing.
- Museum of Solidarity Salvador Allende, Santiago de Chile, Chile / The museum in exile Originally named Museum of Solidarity of Chile (1971-1973), later Museum of Resistance Salvador Allende (1975-1990) and finally Museum of Solidarity Salvador Allende (1990- today), was founded in 1971 in order to garner local and international support for the government of the political coalition Unidad Popular and the presidency of Salvador Allende, as well as for the people of Chile. With the president’s support an international committee was formed to make an international call for artists to donate works that would become the museum’s collection. Between 1972 and 1973 the museum received over 600 works from all over the world. However, after the military coup in September 1973, the museum was shut down, the local members had to leave the country, and much of the
collection either fell into military hands, was left to rot or managed to be disguised and exiled as well. In 1975 the museum regrouped and restarted operations, mainly from Cuba and Paris, only to return to Chile in 1990. Only in the last two decades this institution has managed to bring together most of its remaining collection.
- Museum of Art of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil / The transparent museum
The Museum of Art of Sao Paulo was founded by entrepreneur and collector Assis Chateaubriand in 1947 in order to exhibit his private collection. However, it wasn’t until 1968 when it opened the doors to its current and final building, designed by architect and designer Lina Bo Bardi. Located on the central Avenida Paulista, the museum constitutes one of the fundamental works of modern architecture in the region and a particular way of thinking the museum as a whole, integrating building, surroundings, collection and audiences into one organic and transforming unit. The collection is one of the largest and most important in the Americas, and it includes with about 10,000 pieces of art from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas including Brazil, from time periods spanning from antiquity to the 21st century and including paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, clothing and other media, all living together as one, integrated through Lina Bo Bardi’s building and museographic devices.
- The Mud Museum, Asunción, Paraguay / The popular museum
The Mud Museum originated from the initiative of artists Olga Blinder and Carlos Colombino, who in 1972, in the middle of a military dictatorship, created a moving exhibition of their private collections of prints and drawings which they called the Circulating Collection. With time the collection grew in size and in diversity, specially adding an important section of contemporary art and a collection of both popular and archeological ceramics (which lend their name to the institution), and other traditional forms of folk crafts, indigenous arts, and Jesuit and Franciscan wooden sculptures and carvings. It then needed a permanent space of exhibition, and became the Museo del Barro. Under the directorship of Ticio Escobar, all of these objects stand together as equal, avoiding traditional classification and exhibition canons, the museum is forced to rethink categories and ways of exhibiting that focus on artistic status without devoiding the objects of their histories and identities.
- The Transvestite Museum, Lima, Perú / The queer museum
The Transvestite Museum of Perú is a long standing project by artist Giuseppe Campuzano that defies the institutional canons for the construction of Peruvian history and identity. Its collections and activities have long researched the multidisciplinary trace of transvestism in Perú, in order to subvert the fragmentary and hygienist History, as well as the social norms that this form of history has created for current Peruvian society. The museum’s collection is formed by a variety of contemporary materials, which are constantly contrasted with prehispanic and modern history, with collective and individual stories and memories, and are looked at through a variety of points of view: postcolonial, queer and feminist studies, which seek to empower subaltern identities and communities.