It’s been a while since the season Punta del Este It was no longer just about the beach and nights out. With the expansion of the artistic circuit and the opening of different galleries and museums, the cultural movement also began to make its mark in this destination. The invitation is to celebrate and delve into the work of Uruguayan artists, but also other international icons. This is demonstrated by the new inauguration of the summer exhibitions of MACA, the Atchugarry Museum of Contemporary Art.
A cultural heritage
Opened on January 8, 2022, MACA is the most recent project of the Atchugarry Foundationcreated by the artist Pablo Atchugarry with the objective of promoting visual arts, literature, music and dance for the community and its visitors. Located on kilometer 4.5 of route 104 of Springsthe enterprise is spread over a 45-hectare property, which allows it to boast seven exhibition rooms, a cinema, a theater, an educational space, a library, an open-air amphitheater, more than 75 sculptures and a chapel with the work “The pool”, by Atchugarry.
“There is a common concern among artists and collectors, which consists of thinking about where their works will end up, the fruit of a life, the passion that has always accompanied them. This is how the idea of building a museum was born, right here at the Pablo Atchugarry Foundation, which is in some way the cultural heritage that I leave for Uruguay,” the artist detailed about the creation of MACA.
Throughout the year, in the permanent collection you can find works by artists such as Julio Le Parc, Ernesto Neto, Guillermo Kuitca, Gonzalo Fonseca and Louise Nevelson. While in the park there are works by Bruno Munari, Gyula Kosice, Jorge Riveros, Edgard Negret and Octavio Podesta, among others.
For its part, MACA’s cultural programming offers festivals, film series, concerts, conferences, seminars and workshops where different professionals, artists and art critics participate. All activities are free and open to the public. For example, this season the Canelones departmental orchestra will perform “Jamaica” on January 20, on the 21st there will be a concert by the jazz trio Ricardo Nolé and on the 28th a piano and oboe duet by Matías Ferreyra and Federico Curtí. As for book presentations, on the 17th there will be that of the artist Chiara Baccanelli and on the 21st that of the biologist Susana Maytía, “Biodiversity and Art of Maldonado. Coast. Wetlands. Know. Appreciate. Protect. Keep”.
three artists
Regarding exhibitions, this season the programming began on January 5 with the inauguration of three exhibitions.
The first is dedicated to one of the great Uruguayan artists, Joaquin Torres Garcia. Called “The discovery of oneself”, it begins the celebration for the 150th anniversary of the birth of this unique creator. What is presented is a broad and documented exhibition project produced by the museum and curated by Aimé Iglesias Lukin and Cecilia Rabossi, who proposed a contemporary approach to Torres García’s thought, focusing on events and concerns that marked his career.
Among them, how he participated in the first avant-garde in Europe and proposed that “our north is the south.” “This exhibition aims to think about how this tour of the cities of the north – both in Europe and America – allowed him to understand, digest and rethink a new idea of modernity that would better dialogue with who he was as an artist and citizen,” says the curatorial team. Thus, the focus is placed on the role that his travels had in his mental and emotional journey, which concluded with his return to Montevideo in 1934.
The second sample is “Bruno Munari: The artist”. Dedicated to the prolific Italian creator, who for the first time presents his work in Uruguay, it is curated by Marco Meneguzzo, one of the greatest experts on the author. Designer, artist, pedagogue, graphic artist and cultural agitator, Munari is known for having contributed to “permeating the borders between artistic languages that during modernism were considered academically separate.” The exhibition presents the work of more than seven decades (from the late ’20s to the ’90s) and is the first anthological exhibition in the world about the career of this artist. In it you can see how Munari knew how to maintain a method and adapt to new times and languages, throughout his career. The set on display includes more than 120 works.
Finally, it is presented “Adam Jeppesen: at the passing of the fire”. This exhibition is also pioneering because it represents the Danish artist’s first major exhibition in South America. Recognized for his impactful photographic works, the exhibition delves into the philosophy of wabi-sabi, a Japanese aesthetic that finds beauty in imperfection and transience. It features iconic works such as “The Great Filter,” an installation that explores mortality and the ephemeral nature of life, and “The Pond,” which uses the Danish marshes as a metaphor for the evolution of society and humanity.
Expected return
The inauguration of this season also brings welcome news for Uruguayan and Latin American art: after more than a century abroad, the work “Gaucho in the field”, by Juan Manuel Blaneswill be exhibited at MACA.
Considered “the painter of the country” for the contribution of his works to the country’s identity, an important part of Blanes’ painting refers to the gaucho and rural tasks. This work that returns to Uruguay today maintains that essence in all its splendor. In it, a gaucho with his back turned, on a horse, points to something on the horizon in the evening light. Of significant dimensions (112 x 128 cm.), this oil painting was sold in February 2023 at Toovey’s house in Sussex, England. Its first owner was the Spanish aristocrat Baldomero Jacinto de Bertodano, VII Marquis of Moral. Upon his death the contents of his house, including this painting, were auctioned to divide the inheritance among five family members. It was a brother of the marquis who acquired the painting, in whose hands it remained until the time of the auction.
In England it was sold for US$1,380,652, a record for Blanes, which could be explained not only by the beauty of the piece, but also by the representativeness of a Pampas icon, which revalues the roots of Uruguayan national painting. Acquired by a Uruguayan collector, it will be exhibited for the first time in the country, in this 2024 season.
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