The Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires holds its 60th Anniversary Gala
MAMBA held a Gala for its 60th Anniversary and the 30th Anniversary of the Asociación Amigos del Moderno, It was attended by more than 400 guests, including artists, collectors, curators, business leaders, and institution directors.
The Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Buenos Aires City Government, held a Gala last Thursday, October 6, for its 60th Anniversary and the 30th Anniversary of the Asociación Amigos del Moderno, It was attended by more than 400 guests, including artists, collectors, curators, business leaders, and institution directors.
In attendance were the Head of the Buenos Aires City Government, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta; the City’s Minister of Culture, Ángel Mahler; the City’s Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers, Felipe Miguel, and the Minister of Culture for the Province of Buenos Aires, Alejandro Gómez, among other officials. The guests’ arrival was accompanied with music by the Banda Sinfónica de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires from a stage on the Avenida San Juan, outside the Museum.
After some opening words from the Head of Government and the Minister of Culture, the Museum’s director, Victoria Noorthoorn, thanked the authorities, sponsors, artists, and guests, and presented the calendar for forthcoming exhibitions the year.
Over cocktails, the guests enjoyed music from a string quartet of the Teatro Colón, and after dinner, the singers Juan Rodó, Melania Lenoir, and Marisol Otero performed numbers from musicals.
The Gala was held in the Museum’s first-floor gallery, with décor by the architects and visual artists, Roberto Behar and Rosario Marquardt, who presented their work, Instant Happiness, an installation deploying vinyl “ribbons”, lights, and pennants. The works by Behar & Marquardt suggest encounters between stories and spaces, the everyday and the extraordinary, the poetic and the political, abolishing the boundaries between art and life.
The funds from the event will go to furnishing the Museum’s Library and Documentation Center, currently located at 963 Alsina. This is one of the most important visual arts libraries in Argentina, with bibliographical, periodical, photographic, and documentary material specializing in Argentine and international art from the twentieth century to the present. Its move to the Museum building and subsequent refurbishment will mean significant improvements in services for researchers, historians, artists, and the general public.
Behar & Marquardt
Internationally recognized as artists, designers, and architects, their practice won awards from, among others, the American Institute of Architects, in 2012, 2013, and 2014. Their public artworks also won prizes from Americans for the Arts in 2007 and 2014. Their works in the public sphere include Red M (1996) and The Living Room (2001) in Miami, All Together Now (2007) in the city of Denver, and Bésame mucho (2015), created for the Coachella Valley Music and Art Festival. Their R & R Studios have published numerous books on the couple’s work, including: M (2011), The Living Room (2013), and Museum Works (2013), the first three volumes of their Incomplete Works.
The installation, Instant Happiness, was specially created for the Gala and was open to the general public Friday 7 through Sunday 10, October. This was a large-scale installation that sought to involve the spectator’s body and conjure up the emotional dimension of architecture by transforming the gallery room using motifs and colors associated with pop art and culture, and creating a ludic and celebratory atmosphere for the Museum’s 60th Anniversary.
