Every time an act of barbarism occurs, those scenes of violence to which we are unfortunately accustomed, that we naturalize as an inevitable part of this society, someone says, many times I even heard myself responding or thinking the same thing: lack of culture. “A piece of culture”, as Clemente said, the famous character of the beloved Caloi.
Culture is, above all things, the opposite of violence. It is the social fabric that tries to limit any action that aspires to destructure what defines us as humans. The culture opposes the violence that hurts the bodies, the emotions and the spirituality of each inhabitant of the planet. But it is also a defense against any violent act that seeks to devalue or destroy our identity, the society that we are in a time and place, with a history that constitutes us, that defines our being.
Brief reflection on culture as a way out
Several years ago I was invited to the Corrientes book fair, not only did I tour that beautiful province, but I also brought some learning and a handful of beautiful friends. Corrientes has deep-rooted traditions. It has a very rich history, of great influence in the formation of the nationality, its own music and its own dance, the chamamé, a population practically bilingual (the Guarani language is recognized as an official language along with Spanish) and with a very characteristic idiosyncrasy. The culture of Corrientes is solid and peculiar, resulting from a miscegenation that comes from the first colonial times. But, to show us that not everything is past for Corrientes, ÑANDÉ MAC (“Our –Guaraní voice– Museum of Contemporary Art”).
About us? What is the Latin American truth? Argentina is not Buenos Aires, we must collaborate with decentralization, with power retained in an epicenter, and art is one of the most regal ways to achieve that goal, expansion. Break like this, once again, with the official history. Speak to the world from Corrientes, more than in Spanish, in Argentine and in Guarani. Interpret from the own, from the roots, the universal. A museum that has ÑANDÉ MAC as its name is to speak from other truths, it is to be a showcase and protagonist and not just a spectator of what happens or is exhibited in other latitudes.
In Outline of an American Philosophical Anthropology, Rodolfo Kusch tells us: “The profound meaning of culture is that it populates signs and symbols the world. And that this population is to achieve a home in the world in order not to be too naked and helpless in it. Faced with helplessness, fragility and finitude that are our trademark, art is an essential tool to rescue what is most human, expression, that other food that liberates and broadens the horizon of our being and leaves traces of what has been lived. And establishing a site for culture in Corrientes, in northern Argentina, is to establish another domicile, another home for art to reveal us, reveal us and rebel against ideologies that seek to calm us down or control our being and feeling.
It was Luis Niveiro, an artist and art collector from Corrientes living in Buenos Aires from a very young age, who took the initiative, with a decision that is surprising due to his detachment and his love for the land, and in In 2017, he donated to the Government of Corrientes the most valuable part of his personal collection, works by renowned national and international artists, so that with them the founding heritage of said museum would be constituted. An enthusiastic group of friends seconded him immediately. Then Niveiro would make an extensive tour of Latin America, Europe and part of Africa to get more donations for the collection, trips that were very successful. Currently, the original heritage of the museum has around 200 works, many of them signed by world-renowned great masters such as Luis Felipe Noé, León Ferrari, Antonio Berni, Marta Minujín, Rufino Tamayo, Carlos Gorriarena, Ricardo Carpani, Rogelio Polesello, Eduardo Mac Entyre, Eduardo Stupía, Gyula Kosice, Jorge de la Vega, Josefina Robirosa, Carlos Silva, Kennet Kemble, Kasuya Sakai, Libero Badíi, Marcia Schvartz, Luis Seoane, Miguel Ángel Bengochea, Juan Carlos Lasser, Claudio and Julio Barragán, among others. names.
Cultural practices in the era of the pandemic
If we stick to the number and hierarchy of such works, it seems safe to say that Corrientes will have one of the most important contemporary art museums in South America. At the end of 2017, the project was presented to the public and to the authorities by Niveiro himself and by the architect Gabriel Romero, President of the Corrientes Institute of Culture, the highest body of cultural activities in the province. And in 2019, the law that institutionalized ÑANDÉ MAC was sanctioned and enacted. In April 2021, the President of the Institute of Culture reported that the Governor would soon announce the assignment of a large building to ÑANDÉ MAC, located in the capital city. This has not happened yet, but it is expected to happen in the coming weeks.
These events, which occurred in a province that many consider “backward”, far from Buenos Aires and its movements, They lead us to reflect on the relationship between tradition and progress, on the preservation of the past and the will to improve. In times where the economy and mental, physical and spiritual health were shaken by the pandemic, we need art as sacred medicine more than ever , because human beings do not live by bread alone. How is it possible that ÑANDÉ MAC does not yet have its building? I hope, on my next trip to Corrientes, to get together with my friends to celebrate the opening of that museum, another conquest, another place to rejoice, knowing the power that art exerts on the human soul.
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