Art for all, the motto that has always guided the University Museum, asserts all its essence through the exhibitions available on the screens.

When UNTREF began to carry out Virtual Tours of its exhibitions in 2012, through its museums and its content producer UNTREF Media, the idea that today these same resources would be the gateway to connect the public and art in Buenos Aires and in other parts of the world was unthinkable. Pioneer in its concept of democratizing art, researching, producing, curating and presenting its own exhibitions, the realization of the Virtual Tours glimpsed the presence of “archives of exhibitions” but ended up representing an additional service, and of value to the public. In times like the present, given the impossibility of moving to the Museum, we can also continue accessing an artistic experience through the screens.

“From the MUNTREF we have been working on the development of these virtual visits together with UNTREF Media for almost a decade, when we could not even imagine a scenario like the current one, because we understood them as another possible way to attend the Museum and live a cultural experience, even without doing so physically. And this does not mean denying the irreplaceable experience of access ‘in person’, but rather allows to work on other levels, since it represents a type of diverse cultural experience that facilitates access to increasingly larger portions of the population”, said Diana Wechsler, Artistic Director of the MUNTREF.

“At the time we thought of this format as an ‘archive of exhibitions’, since we know that temporary exhibitions are, precisely because of their unique nature, ephemeral. Therefore, in the best of cases, the publications that accompanied them remain, but the situation of the works in space is lost. In this way, MUNTREF organizes a collection of collections from this meeting in virtual format of the exhibitions held and that are available on its website”, explained Wechsler, who is also Director of the UNTREF Department of Art and Culture.

Guillermo Suárez, coordinator of the Systems, Web and Apps (SWAP) area at UNTREF Media, explained that to carry out these Tours “a 360° camera is used, and it allows a single photo to capture the entire space, as well as a software designed to generate the immersive and interactive experiences, bringing the virtual visit to the exhibition as close as possible to the real one”.

However, when they started with this development, “a single-lens camera was used, and a special grip had to be used for the tripod that allowed the movements to be made shot by shot to complete the panoramic image, which then had to be post-processed to pass on to the software of generation of the virtual tour”, recalled Suárez.

The coordinator also explained that “each tour is in itself a memory record of the life of MUNTREF and the University, and we intend it not to be a memory of the past but to always remain active and as a reference tool available to multiple audiences, attentive to technological changes and the forms of consumption that accompany them”.

At this time, in days of global health emergency, where in order to take care of ourselves and others, staying at home has been the coordinate, screens –of computers, telephones and all kinds of mobile devices– have become the protagonists of our daily lives. Without neglecting the attentive and critical gaze regarding their use, we must say that, in favor, they have been taken over mostly by art and culture.

In response to the preventive and mandatory social isolation indicated by the National Government in the face of the advance of the coronavirus, the doors of all the headquarters of the Museum of the National University of Tres de Febrero had to be closed, and the virtual bridges of art and culture, which were already built, gained prominence and reinforced our motto Art for all, also in times of pandemic.

This is how we present #MiráMUNTREF, a program for the distribution of the Museum’s content through its digital platforms (website and social networks: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube). The MUNTREF Virtual Tours are available on the website http://untref.edu.ar/muntref/es/recorridos-virtuales/ and allow you to visit for the first time, or re-visit, the different exhibitions presented at MUNTREF’s different venues; including, among others, the Boltanski Buenos Aires experience, the exhibition visions / re-visions of Noé, the first site-specific anthology of Graciela Sacco in the country, Nothing is where it is believed; a visit to Italians and Spaniards in Argentina; the exhibition Fantastic Zoology, by Pablo La Padula; and the 2015, 2017 and Historic Braque Awards (1963-1997).

In all cases, it is a unique experience that allows the exhibitions presented in the Immigration and Visual Arts museums, and the Contemporary Art, Art and Science, and Art and Nature centers to be transferred to the virtual world. In 360º format, these Tours enable those who take them virtually to familiarize with the spaces and exhibitions as if they were visiting them in person. They also highlight the curatorial look; while enabling a new dialogue between visitors, spaces and works of art. It is not only about seeing but, fundamentally, about traveling.

These Virtual Tours that were developed online with the institutional purpose of working for the democratization of art, with the aim of bringing cultural experiences closer to the entire population, without any kind of distance, seeking to overcome even geographical ones, will also be presented, from the week of May 18, on the website of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires within the framework of its program Culture at Home (https://www.buenosaires.gob.ar/culturaencasa)