The public will be able to enjoy solo shows by Muhannad Shono from Saudi Arabia, Luis Felipe Noé and Nora Ancarola from Argentina and a collective exhibition with more than 30 artists from the Americas, Europe and Africa. 

After the season break, the MUNTREF Hotel de Inmigrantes venue will open its doors on Wednesday, February 2nd at 11am with an array of installations, sculptures, videos, photographs, paintings, posters and drawings by artists from several parts of the world who participated in the third edition of BIENALSUR and explore themes such as migratory issues, ways of living and art policies. Thus, the Museum of the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF) is presenting a series of free proposals under the premise of making art and culture accessible to everyone. 

Among the international artists, it is worth mentioning Muhannad Shono from Saudi Arabia and his exhibition “Silence Still Speaks to Us” curated by Diana Wechsler, artistic director of MUNTREF and BIENALSUR. Through this proposal, the Arab creator reflects upon the crisis of the word. As the curator says, this selection of works denounces how the word is hardening and the estrangement it currently generates, suggesting ways to restore its imaginary possibilities.

“Shono associates words and writing, and the latter with drawing. For this series he chooses two materials that are both simple and ductile, namely charcoal and paper, to experiment with them not only on the plane but also as volume. The subtlety of the charcoal marks -random, automatic, accidental- on each of the light surfaces in the different works that make up this Saudi artist’s exhibition become an enigma that challenges the imagination and, in turn, the possibility of relearning to read in another way, discovering codes, learning clues that take us away from what we know and open up other paths to interpretation and reflection“, says Wechsler.  

This project brings Shono’s work to the country for the first time and is endorsed by the Ministry of Culture of Saudi Arabia. 

Additionally, visitors will be able to see Luis Felipe (Yuyo) Noé’s impressive installation “Confusion”. Originally exhibited at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in 2017, this work by the great Argentine artist is revisited and made available to the public thanks to a joint action between MUNTREF and the Noé Foundation. With a wealth of shapes and colours, the installation condenses the artist’s vision of a world in constant change, according to curator Diana Wechsler. 

“Noé insistently suggests inhabiting chaos, being in it and enjoying its expansive force, its creative power, its uncertainty, and hence the possibility of exploring other paths,” she adds.

Also on display is “Panoptic Frontier 601” by Argentine artist Nora Ancarola curated by Valentín Roma from Spain. Along the same conceptual line, this work draws together philosopher Michel Foucault’s research on disciplinary devices, the Gestapo bunker built at the beginning of World War II in a strategic location in Portbou and the processes of border militarization, and the violence perpetrated by the state against the migrant population, as well as the penalizing archetypes produced by the media as well as political and legal circles.

“The exhibition brings together these elements in a video installation with projections, light boxes and objects that represent the technical grammar of a visual control system, taking to the protected environment of the museum the experience of the panopticon, the testimonies of those who suffer border harassment, the images and languages that make it possible to understand how surveillance is carried out in the present,” explains the curator.

Finally, visitors will also have the opportunity to see the group exhibition “Between Us and the Others: TOGETHER APART” featuring works by 36 artists from the Americas, Europe and Africa curated by Wechsler, Alex Brahim from Colombia and Benedetta Casini from Italy on current migratory issues within a context where divisions and inequalities are on the rise, walls are put up and neighbours are perceived as a threat. 

“This exhibition seeks to explore possible answers that go beyond the limits of a single way of thinking in an attempt to bring together the conditions of migration, the encounter of identities and the configuration of an “us” among the others. As an introduction, a repertoire of radical cartographies revisits the rationale of the world. The ‘hot’ borders – Colombia-Venezuela, Israel-Palestine, Mexico-United States – are present in the exhibition hall from the perspective of the selected artists. Poetic readings, critical viewpoints, visual reconfigurations are included in this curatorial narrative, which takes place in the former Hotel de Inmigrantes in Buenos Aires, a privileged location to meet with the public”, Wechsler concludes.

All these exhibitions will be open until the end of February, except for “Between Us and the Others: TOGETHER APART”, which will continue in March. Visits to MUNTREF Hotel de Inmigrantes venue are from Wednesday to Sunday from 11am to 6pm. Admission is free, and visits must be reserved on the Museum View MUNTREF App or by email at visitasmuntref@untref.edu.ar

In addition to the reopening of MUNTREF Hotel de Inmigrantes, other venues of the university museum will also resume their activities. MUNTREF Centro de Arte y Ciencia, Tecnópolis venue will open on Friday, February 4th with the exhibition “Expanded Realities”. Curated by Paula Hrycyk, this proposal focuses on the intersections of art, science and technology and how trans-disciplinary projects can broaden perspectives and questions about reality. It features works by the SIERVA collective, Bruno Mesz, Sebastián Tedesco, Leandro Garber and Gala González. Experimental activities will be carried out with the spectators during their visit. 

MUNTREF Artes Visuales Caseros I venue will welcome the public once again on Monday, February 7th with the exhibition “Clues” curated by Wechsler. It includes pieces from the collections of the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Emilio Pettoruti and MUNTREF.  This show offers a historical-artistic tour of Argentina in the 20th century featuring productions by Emilio Pettoruti, Víctor Rebuffo, Clorindo Testa, Daniel Santoro, Juan Del Prete, Líbero Badíi, Pompeyo Audivert and Anne-Marie Heinrich, among other artists.