BOGOTA – A DICHOTOMY BETWEEN THE PUBLIC AND THE PRIVATE, MAMBO PRESENTS “I WANNA BE WITH YOU”

Since its appearance, COVID-19 has suddenly changed our entire way of life, forcing Colombia to the most prolonged isolation in the world. Many countries are still experiencing different measures, enforcing social distancing to slow down the pandemic. Choreographies and liturgies connected to the body were transformed radically, as well as our daily basis activities. Staying indoors, working from home, and avoiding social gatherings are still vividly encouraged, if not imposed, almost everywhere in the world.

“Historically, the act of collecting has always been a mirror of culture . It’s a complex and intriguing phenomenon, capable of revealing exciting insights about society: its desires, motivations, needs, obsessions, aspirations, and ambitions”, explains Claudia Hakim, Museum Director.    

I Wanna Be With You, whose title is borrowed from the eponymous Rineke Dijkstra’s work (Annemiek - I Wanna Be With You, 1997), brings the viewer closer to works that are not easily visible since they are rarely displayed publicly. It offers new incentives for delving into the idea of a collection and therefore of a museum as a place that challenges conventional narratives, while providing a critical approach to the junction between the public dimension of a museum and the intimacy of private collections.       

“I Wanna Be With You offers a wide range of visual associations, short circuits between artists of different generations, geographic provenances, and approaches, linked by formal assonances or poetic intuitions. Thus, allowing masters of contemporary art to dialogue  with emerging artists in a surprising continuity, sustained by a playfully eccentric coherence”, comments Eugenio Viola, Chief Curator MAMBO.