The Museum of Contemporary Art of Bogotá, also known under the abbreviations of MAC, is a museum located in the Minuto de Dios neighborhood of Engativá, northwest of Bogotá, adjacent to the Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios. It has turned fifty years of anniversary.
Founded in 1966, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá has a collection of contemporary art made up of more than 1,600 works by Colombian and international artists. It is considered a meeting point for various contemporary manifestations from the visual arts to sound, stage, electronic or literary works. Considered the main museum in northwestern Bogotá.
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá, has a permanent collection of Colombian and latinamerican artists, and some Europeans and North Americans.The collection has over 1,000 works since the second half twentieth century to the present.
History
The Museum of Contemporary Art of Bogotá (MAC) as a cultural entity of UNIMINUTO is an institution that adopts the principles of the work Minuto de Dios, with which it was born in 1966 under the premise of Father Rafael García-Herreros “Beauty, as the wealth, has a mandatory social function “which comes to be a synthesized phrase from the parable of the museum, in which García-Herreros tells about a visit he made to the house of a lady who had paintings, ceramics and other cultural riches that were limited to the sight of their owner Seeing this, he expresses his desire to create a museum with important works donated by artists who would like to contribute to giving culture a social meaning. From there the idea was born that he would later share with Germán Ferrer Barrera, cultural manager and first director of the museum, who would be a fundamental person in the materialization of this dream.
On August 15, 1966 the foundation of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Bogotá was formalized, Germán Ferrer Barrera managed with outstanding artists of the moment the donation of the works that will be part of the collection of the new museum.
On November 25, 1966, a room was opened in the Colegio Minuto de Dios where the people of the capital could learn about the artistic canons of the contemporary world. 55 works were part of the MAC collection in its first year.
The increase in its activities and new donations for its collection motivated the construction of a building conceived exclusively to be an art museum, which constituted something without references in Colombia, not only for its avant-garde design but for its location in a popular neighborhood.
On July 16, 1970 at 11 am, the roof of the current MAC building was closed, an event attended by managers of the Colombian Institute of Culture, directors of museums in Bogotá, artists and the community of the Minuto de Dios neighborhood. Four months later, on November 20, the museum’s current headquarters was inaugurated.
On October 10, 1970, the first youth art fair was convened, one hundred and eighty proposals were received to be analyzed by the juries David Manzur, Augusto Rivera and Bernardo Salcedo, for the final sample thirty-four artists were selected.
Since then, the MAC has become a meeting point for contemporary manifestations in the visual, sound, performing, electronic and literary arts that take place at the local, district, national and international levels. Through various spaces such as: August Room, Fire Room, New Expressions Room, Electronic Contemporary Arts Festival, Thesis Project, among other thematic exhibitions.
In 2009 the MAC created in the Plaza de Banderas in the Minuto de Dios neighborhood, a sculptural space that has a permanent exhibition of works by renowned artists where Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar, Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt, Luís Eduardo Urueta, Justo Arosemena can be highlighted., Jim Amaral, John Castles, Cesar Padilla, Hugo Zapata, Nadín Ospina, Rodrigo Arenas, among others. In addition to the murals “Signo Encuentro” by Manuel Hernández and “Sin Titulo” by María Teresa Pardo, which have been permanently on the exterior walls of the MAC since 1986. In total, 24 sculptures and 2 murals await the visit of hundreds of passers-by.
Currently, the MAC houses nearly 1,000 works of important art references in Colombia, a journey through the most representative of contemporaneity from the second half of the 20th century to the present, as well as a documentation center, permanently consulted., with more than 1,100 specialized titles in art.
As the only museum in the town of Engativá, the MAC is a cultural benchmark that annually thanks to the support of UNIMINUTO, inter-institutional agreements and alliances, carries out numerous exhibitions, concerts, talks, workshops and performance actions, among other activities that constitute it as a stage active in the exhibition, dissemination and communication of different contemporary artistic and cultural practices, through which the participation and inclusion of various audiences has priority in a laboratory that fosters culture with social meaning.
The Architecture
Designed in 1970 by architects Eduardo del Valle and Jairo Lopez, was the first building in the country designed a museum exclusively for and received the National Architectural Prize.
The spatial concept the museum corresponds to a spiral that develops on a large empty center that serves as a skylight, the staircase allows a helical circulation for its three floors.
Located on the plaza flags Minuto de Dios neighbourhood form a single volume with the theatre become culture icon in the northwest of Bogota.
In 1998 a remodeling of its walls was undertaken, lighting system, and warehouse floors to update the requirements while contemporary square flags and new accesses.
Both spaces interior and exterior are frequent scene of academic, social, cultural, community and faith.
The MAC is considered one of the spaces more attractive, dynamic and avant-garde museum in Bogota.
The Museum
Within the project to develop fully human person, culture plays an expanding role, invigorating and renewing society and understood them Father Rafael Garcia Herreros to gestate social and evangelizing work of “El Minuto de Dios”.
On 25 November 1966 opens to the public in a modest room the Museum of Contemporary Art Bogota MAC with works donated by 52 artists, the increase in its activities and newdonations to its collection led to the construction of a new building opened in 1970 which constituted something unprecedented not only for its design edgy but for its location in a popular neighborhood.
Since then the museum has become the meeting point of the demonstrations in contemporary visual, sound, stage, electronic arts and Literary that occur at local, district and national levels.
Through the “Hall August, “Hall of Fire “,”New expressions”,” Thesis”,”Contemporary Electronic Arts Festival” in many thematic exhibitions and anthological the MAC has contributed significantly to the dissemination, study and appropriation of artistic practices.
The Collection
The works that make up the MAC acquis mark a view of contemporary art in Colombia from the 60s to the present day through a collection of more than 1,000 works and constantly increased with new donations.
Artists founders stand Botero, Obregón Negret, Ramírez Villamizar, Hernandez, Cardenas Hoyos Gonzalez, Grass, Villegas, then Rivera, Silva were linked, Zarate, Mateus, Riveros, Giangrandi, Roda, Maripaz, Knight, Salcedo,Richter, Loochkart, followed them Ospina, Jacanamijoy, Roman, Angel Lugo, Alcantara, Guerrero, Ortiz, Cortez and continue linking Latin American Cruz Diez and Cuevas as well as the winners of the Hall of August.
From this set organize thematic exhibitions reviewing genres and trends contemporary art practices to promote various readings museum collection.
In its programming MAC performs annual exhibitions aimed at promoting young talents and new trends in partnership with universities, institutes culture, foundations, embassies and cultural organizations.
Today the Museum of Contemporary Art of Bogotá has established itself as a space where different cultural manifestations converge, contributing to the dissemination and appropriation of local, national and international contemporary art. His valuable collection exceeds 1,600 works, which are constantly increasing with new donations, which offer a look at contemporary art in Colombia from the 1960s to the present day. In addition to continuous calls, thematic exhibitions are permanently organized that review the genres and trends of contemporary artistic practices in order to promote diverse readings of the museum’s collections.
Artists and Works of the Collection
Teresa Currea
His work has been shown in various group exhibitions such as Proyecto Tesis (2008) and Universos Paralelos (2009). He has exhibited individually the Tegumentos exhibition (2016) at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá. In 2011, his work El Monje y el Ciervo became part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá.
Juan Carlos Alonso
His work has been shown in the exhibitions Salón de Agosto (2005), Parallel Universes (2009) and Contemporary Photography (2009). All of them held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá. Represented Colombia in the Tenth Cuenca Biennial (2009). The collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Bogotá since 2011 includes the works You are what we were, you will be what we are, donated by the artist himself within the framework of the forty-five year anniversary of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Bogotá.
César Padilla
His work has been shown in exhibitions such as the Salón de Agosto (2006), Landscaping (2012) and El Riesgo de Ser (2014). This latest retrospective exhibition of his artistic career of more than thirty years. He has been director and director of the Ex-libris exhibition of the Bicentennial of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá. In the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá there are three works by César Padilla as Presencia 2 (1997), Atisbos (2006) and Sembrar Miradas (2009), all of them in the permanent sculpture room of the museum.
Pedro Alcántara
His work has been shown in the Salon of Young Art (1967), Graphics in the Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Bogotá (2007), One Hundred Masterpieces of the Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Bogotá (2011), Transitions of the Modernity to Contemporaneity (2016) and The Power of Image (2016) presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá. In the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá there are the works What death do you sleep? Get up! (1967), Portrait of a Warrior (1972), Segundo Estado Homenaje a Jorge (1973) and Todos Somos Manuel (2002).
Fabio Rodríguez Amaya
His work has been shown in the museum’s collection there are works such as the “Deep suggestion of a window” winning work of the Third Art Salon (1969). He also got the second position in the First International Biennial of Young Art in 1970.
Franklin Aguirre
His work has been shown in exhibitions such as Milestones of Young Art (1999) and in the Thesis Project (2010) as a jury. In the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Bogotá there is his work Reparation I (2010), a work present at the Arte en Casa event.
Miguel Kuan
His work has been shown in two exhibitions, New Donations (2011) and Re-Installations (2016). His work Estridulation has been in the museum’s collection since 2011.
Abel Azcona
His work has been shown in a retrospective exhibition dedicated to the artist with dozens of his first works under the name No Deseado (2014). In addition to three other previous and subsequent exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá. In 2015, the Museum acquired its Biological Meeting, a work exhibited in New Works (2016), Political Acts (2017) and Body Policies (2018).
Lina Sinisterra
His work has been shown in 2015 with the exhibition exhibition Se me movió el piso, painting exercises (2015). The work Macronomía has been in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá since 2011.
Francois Dolmetsch
His work has been shown in the exhibition Fachada. In the museum’s collection his work consists of two Untitled pieces from his series Tropical Palimpsestos.
David Lozano
His work has been shown in the IX Salon of New Plastic Expressions (1988) and in the exhibition Desde La Academia (2009), in addition to being a jury member in Proyecto Tesis (2012). In 2006 he donated the work Untitled to the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá, on the occasion of the museum’s forty years.
Óscar Gonzalez-Guache
His work has been shown at the Indios de Asfalto exhibition in 2014, a sample of painting and screen printing. In the summer of 2013 he made a pictorial installation on the wall of the Minuto de Dios University Corporation invited by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá. His work, Sudaka, is one of the main pieces in the solo exhibition held in 2014 in the museum’s collection.
The Documentation Centre
Specializing in contemporary art Colombian and international has more than three thousand books, magazines, catalogs, videos, CD and DVD that can be consulted in the reading room.
Within the material specialized press file MAC chips collection is permanent collection of MAC publications, case of Research on the “Work Week” and “Chronicle 40” plus bank thesis in PDF selected for the project THESIS artists.
By exchange museums, biennials and cultural institutions of national and international We receive important documentary material that increases the fund research and study of contemporary art.
It is located in the second floor of the museum and is accessed by the management ladder, has the same institutional schedules and access is open and free.