Artists as family

“Artists as family”: Alberto Heredia's house reopens as a creative residence
Promoted by the Modern in San Telmo, it is the first of a public museum in Argentina; The project was possible thanks to the legacy of its deceased owner and multiple contributions from private donors

It remained closed for almost two decades, with his belongings as they were on the day of his death in 2000. Although Alberto Heredia did not have children and his wish was to donate the apartment where he lived and worked in Buenos Aires to the Museum of Modern Art San Telmo, located in a historic building on Caseros Avenue, the succession process was complex. And when it finally passed into the hands of the public entity, along with more than five hundred works of his authorship, the pandemic further delayed the project of turning it into the first residence for artists and art professionals in a public museum in Argentina.

Victoria Noorthoorn, director of the Moderno, and Enrique Avogadro, Minister of Culture of the City of Buenos Aires

“These were years of significant challenges for the museum's heritage and conservation teams, who worked hard to clear and inventory the house,” Victoria Noorthoorn, director of the Modern, said today as she opened this new space aimed at strengthening the museum's history to the press and special guests. the national art system. In the 157m2 that include two rooms and a workshop, visitors from the provinces will be able to stay, produce and research - such as Eugenia Calvo, from Rosario, who will debut it next month during the creation of a work for the museum - and from other countries in programs of exchange.

“Alberto decided that his family was the family of art and the artists were his brothers,” added Laura Buccellato, a friend of Heredia and former director of the Moderno, who dedicated a retrospective and a book to him in 1998. There she remembers how the artist got this property, when he decided to move from a small apartment on Paraná Street because he no longer had a place to store his works.

Architect Gerardo Azcuy provided the remodeling project and construction management

“We then went out to look for a larger place,” she writes in the prologue. We walked around San Telmo until we finally found the place that would be his current home. Even though the money he had was exactly half of what was necessary to purchase the house he had chosen, he knelt and hugged the legs of the embarrassed seller, moaning and gesticulating, shouting 'I'm staying here!' ' managed to convince him. His desire was such that he expressed it in an operatic sense, as if his life depended on that realm. He was there or he would die.”
Even more dramatic than his personality are his works, made in many cases with discarded materials, which took time to be assimilated by the market. With Lenguas y Muggings he anticipated the terror of the years of dictatorship, when he was forced to emigrate to Uruguay after receiving a threatening letter from Triple A. Also then, the Moderno book states, colleagues came to the aid of the.

He still receives that unconditional support today. While the Azcuy Foundation donated the remodeling project and the construction management; ArtHaus made its contribution to launch the residency program and Joanne Cattarossi Estudio took care of the interior design free of charge, which includes the award-winning chairs created by Francisco Gómez Paz from Salta. The Friends of the Modern Association was also among the main sponsors of the initiative.

“It is not an isolated project of this institution, which is in permanent dialogue with the now and with its environment,” acknowledged Enrique Avogadro, Minister of Culture of the City of Buenos Aires. “We know that Argentina – he added – is not an easy country to promote projects that will have an impact in the medium and long term.” Although it is easier, of course, if you know how to choose your family.

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