A group of young curators carefully clean a series of pieces that will be part of an exhibition by the French artist Ben Vautier.
They are in the spacious and well-lit rooms 1, 2, and 3 of the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) in Mexico City, and their work is critical to ensuring a perfect show by one of today's most prominent contemporary art artists.
Brushes, handkerchiefs, sponges, gloves... no care is too much for MUAC to shine with such an important exhibition, which shows once again that it has become one of the most important public museums in Mexico.
The museum celebrates its 15th anniversary, always at the forefront and attentive to the trends that set the pace in art, but also with a key mission: to preserve the memory of contemporary Mexican art.
“Both the museum and the contemporary art scene in Mexico have developed exponentially and MUAC has helped this scene develop.
The museum is still in its consolidation stage, but despite the fact that it is young, it has built its own identity”, says Amanda de la Garza, director of the museum.
The MUAC has a public collection considered "pioneering" and "unique" among Mexican museums.
The museum houses 1,800 works of art by more than 300 artists.
Its collection includes the most prominent names in contemporary Mexican art, such as Gabriel Orozco, Damián Ortega, Teresa Margolles, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Minerva Cuevas or Betsabeé Romero.
The museum also has 40 documentary funds, where files are preserved that show how the artistic scene in Mexico has been transformed since the founding of the National Autonomous University (UNAM), in 1952, because this important center of Mexican art was created precisely by the university to become the guardian of that artistic treasure.
“From the beginning it was conceived to carry out a process of reconstruction of the history of art in Mexico.
The MUAC was inaugurated in 2008 and since then it has become a cultural reference in Mexico City.
The museum has hosted around 150 exhibitions and in its minimalist-style rooms more than five million visitors have been able to enjoy works by Vicente Rojo, the Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang, Yves Klein, Anish Kapoor or the current exhibition by Ben Vautier , which will be open to the public until April.
From the MUAC they affirm that there have also been collaborations with the most important modern art museums in the world, such as the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), the Tate Modern, London, the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA ), The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston [MFAH].
This is how its director points out the achievements of the museum in these 15 years: “We have developed a very profitable, very fruitful synergy, in the field of the curatorial program, which has been strengthened, which serves different audiences.
The MUAC is a museum of interactions and intersections, and we have much more specialized exhibition projects for research audiences and others that serve larger audiences.
The plurality that the MUAC has generated is relevant.
And, in addition, we have developed a public program that has specific lines of work, which are very relevant to generate a more intense relationship with communities of thought”.
Amanda de la Garza at the MUAC, on May 26, 2022. Hector Guerrero
The MUAC is, as stated by de la Garza, a space “for different positions to meet” and whose offer also aims to “generate curiosity about art”.
And in that it helps to be part of UNAM, the main public university in Mexico, which guarantees freedom and autonomy to the institution.
“Being a university museum is important, because it implies certain values and work principles, including freedom of expression, critical discussions of ideas, our intense relationship with the intellectual world in Mexico, because we work hand in hand with researchers and academics, not only from UNAM, but from other universities”, explains the official.
That freedom to which the director refers is palpable in the shows organized by the MUAC.
These days the museum presents an exhibition that reflects the social movements in Latin America, the struggles for freedom and against oppressive regimes, such as the Nicaragua of Daniel Ortega.
Do museums have a political commitment?
Or should they keep their distance, maintain neutrality on certain issues that affect our societies?
"Our position has to do with the values that the university defends, which include freedom of expression, respect for diversity, human rights, otherness, in rethinking the great issues that afflict Mexico and the world," he replies. of the Garza
In that sense, it is indeed a position, because the museum is a public space where it is important for these ideas to appear.
That independence that characterizes the museum, explains the director, is related to the way in which it is managed.
“MUAC, like many university instances, is directed by academic councils and these councils safeguard that integrity, because the decisions made on programming are supervised and endorsed by specialists in the field.
This has allowed the museum to maintain its autonomy”, explains de la Garza.
Being a museum of contemporary art, the MUAC is not far from the discussions that have taken place worldwide in art galleries at a time when important social changes are being consolidated.
In museums in Europe and the United States, the decolonization of art is discussed, because there was an idea that modern art was the thing of white, American, European men.
The MoMa in New York, for example, redesigned its exhibitions and decided to open up to groups considered ignored, such as women, black and Latino artists.
Tour of the Ben Vautier exhibition at the University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC) on December 14, 2022. Hector Guerrero
“We are attentive to these discussions,” says de la Garza.
“For MUAC it has been very relevant, for example, to include the gender perspective in the exhibitions that we have carried out.
We have also been very focused on the contemporary art of indigenous peoples, with the development of international colloquia focused on thinking about contemporary indigenous art and how to approach these artistic expressions.
We have considered how an institution like the MUAC is linked, incorporated, and issues discourses regarding indigenous contemporary art, because this is a task that is ongoing, which requires a scope of reflection to rethink what specific actions we can develop to infiltrate other speeches and rethinking the history of art”, explains the director.
Despite this effort and the great success that MUAC has had, its director is aware that much work is still needed to bring a wider audience closer to contemporary art.
“We don't have all the potential audience that we could, because there are many people who feel alienated,” accepts de la Garza.
That is why this birthday year the authorities of the MUAC also take time to reflect on the work done and the challenges they face, mainly after the blow caused by the covid pandemic, which has caused many museums to redefine their work.
“There is a lot to do in terms of having more reach.
There is a job to attract more spectators, but being a public museum and serving university students in an important way, the MUAC is an open space, which seeks not only to attract knowledgeable audiences,
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