Without ever abandoning the smile, nor the laughter when it comes to it, the Mexican Amanda de la Garza (Monclova, Coahuila, 42 years old) follows a conversation that goes from her country to Spain, from New York to Africa, from Latin America to the East Next, the same trajectory of contemporary art and the route that the programming of the Reina Sofía in Madrid will probably follow, where she will serve as deputy artistic director starting in April.
She is supported by her 12 years at the helm of the University Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City, the famous MUAC, a benchmark in the region.
Art historian, sociologist and anthropologist, De la Garza humorously admits that the enormous Guernica mural
now
on display at the MUAC, reinterpreted by the Colombian painter Beatriz González, “was a premonition” of her departure to the museum that houses the work. Picasso's teacher, icon of world modern art.
Ask.
Besides
Guernica,
what are the strengths of Reina Sofía?
Answer.
Something fundamental for a public museum, which is not only an exhibition place, with very important references, but also thinks in terms of its place and its social role, the set of academic programs, the documentation center... The thought of what What a museum can do in social terms is something very notable about the Reina, and Manuel Segade [the director] wants that horizon for the museum.
Q.
What will your contribution be?
A.
My vision from my training and how I see the development of the regional and global art scene.
But also the way in which I consider that leadership should be developed in institutions, I am part of a generational change, I think that a management position must work with teams in a horizontal way.
The gender part is important to me, how feminism has raised power relations and what power means and how we interact with each other.
Q.
Should the Reina Sofía and its relationship with Latin America be raised as references in the decolonization in which many museums are embarking?
A.
Yes, it already is, it has a leadership position.
He also the Tate Modern, in terms of acquisitions of Latin art, but he also thinks about the relationship with Africa and migrations to Europe.
Q.
What can Latin America now transfer to the Reina?
A.
On the one hand, artists, there is a great diversity of practices and many creators also work internationally, artistic circuits are global and of constant exchange.
The Reina also has the role of promoting this dialogue with institutions in Latin America and establishing contacts so that these exhibitions and collections can also be seen in Mexico, in Latin America.
Institutions and museums are moving towards that horizon, rethinking themselves in terms of their history, colonial history.
Q.
And Africa?
A.
There is a relevant artistic production that has been reflected in the contemporary art circuits, there is the Zeitz MOCAA, in South Africa, the Raw Material Company, in Senegal, institutional and independent initiatives and the entire diaspora, migrants in Europe.
There is an important conversation about the repatriation of cultural objects or cultural artifacts.
Some museums in the United States and Europe have begun this process to return them.
Q.
Migration is discussed a lot in museums, but artists from those places are not taken into account as much.
A.
That's right, the presence of contemporary artists who come from different regions, Latin America or Africa or the Middle East, is important.
We are afraid to rethink where we build the artistic canon from.
Sometimes there is also the idea that a creator who comes from a certain region can only talk about certain topics, nor can the artistic production of certain regions be pigeonholed as limited to a context or that the demand has to be for politicized art.
Q.
The word canon refers to antiquity.
What is the canon of contemporary art?
A.
There are institutions that establish referential positions, what they exhibit shows the way.
They are instances that represent the definition of contemporary art, and are predominantly in the United States and Europe.
The MoMA, the Tate, the Reina Sofía too, or the Rijksmuseum.
Q.
Now you are leaving the MUAC to go to the Reina.
And when you grow up, what would you like to do?
A.
[Laughs heartily] Possibly, I will return to Mexico and dedicate myself to writing, which I never developed in professional terms, but at another time I was closely linked to the world of literature, of poetry.
Q.
And direct the MoMA?
A.
The opportunities in my life have not been a function of ambition for a higher position, but of interest, of finding a place to do something, probably after working in such large institutions what I want is to dedicate myself to a small museum...
Q.
Women's things...
A.
Ha ha ha, no, it's true, greater flexibility, a closer relationship with the team, that scale is also interesting and valuable, not everything has to go further.
Q.
Like textiles and embroidery, museums now dedicate space to what critics call “little papers,” documents from the archives that tell stories.
Isn't it an excessive intellectual demand for those who only seek aesthetic enjoyment?
A.
Museums have a great diversity of audiences, and the programming is built based on them.
The question is: if something more specialized does not happen in museums, where could it happen?
There are products that are not immediately digestible, but the opacity of the art or document is also important for it to have a space in the social imagination.
The idea that everything has to be immediately accessible eliminates complexity in social relationships, but history is complex and full of intricacies.
Q.
The social and political dimension attracts criticism, which you will call dialogue.
A.
All public institutions are subject to public scrutiny, museums too.
Subject to specialized criticism and that of the public, it is a natural exercise.
I believe that museums, institutions, must take certain risks, and have the vocation to transform certain perspectives on art, on production, revisions, not just the task of normalizing what is already accepted.
Q.
And is this intention to break coming from the social and political sphere?
A.
To a large extent, social movements, feminism, anti-racist, anti-colonial, migration, have imposed tasks for institutions, there are real social demands expressed openly, and exhibitions have sought to respond to them.
Black
Lives Matter
has imposed a political social agenda on museums, the inclusion of African-American artists, even having jobs that have to do with diversity within museums.
Q.
Is society more open?
A.
It is more open and it is not, there is also a regression that is legally visible in many countries; politically, of conflict, censorship, exclusion, many edges, and institutions become less risky.
Q.
How has art consumption changed?
A.
There is a before and after of the pandemic.
Telephones, social networks, and technology have changed cultural consumption internationally; museums have made an arduous effort to regain audiences.
Consumption for certain generations is very focused on access through a mobile phone, it is a very different experience from in-person.
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