The MAR Museum celebrates ten years of free and diverse art for everyone

A decade of culture for all tastes
From the Alfajores de Minujín Sea Lion to the Bienalsur, the Mar del Plata museum will celebrate its birthday this summer with important programming.

The MAR Provincial Museum of Contemporary Art turns ten years old today and will celebrate it with a diverse and accessible program for all audiences, which will run throughout the summer season.

Inaugurated on December 27, 2013, the MAR Museum is one of the few museums in the country designed especially for this purpose. With more than 7,000 m2, it became a cultural center of attraction in the northern area of the city of Mar del Plata. In these ten years of life, its exhibitions were visited by millions of people, and thousands participated in the recitals, conferences, film screenings, festivals and much more, always with free admission.
History

Its construction was in the form of a public project competition called by the College of Architects of the province of Buenos Aires. After this process, the Monoblock Studio was chosen to project the MAR. After four years of construction, it was inaugurated at the end of 2013.

“A museum was envisioned that could house many highly prestigious art exhibitions and based on this, the decision was made to maximize a room environment that was as spacious, luminous and flexible as possible, with a spatial richness that would allow us to imagine this building as a clear reference in the cultural activity of the entire city and the region,” said the architects.

The rooms were located on a high floor to take advantage of the great specialty they have and the possibility of lighting them from above, configuring a large open volume as a contemporary exhibition area. The structure is based on a system of independent concrete structural modules, which guarantees that each of these is finished in itself. Four cubic modules of raw concrete structure and enclosure make up each of the modules.
The alfajores wolf

That December 27, together with the inauguration of the MAR, the “Sea Wolf of Alfajores” was born, created by the artist Marta Minujín. It became the first heritage work of the MAR. The installation measures 10 meters high, was made of iron and metal, and is covered by 50,000 Havanna alfajores wrappers.

After creating his renowned “site specific” installations such as “El Partenón de Libros” (1983, Buenos Aires) and the “Obelisco de Pan Dulce” (1978, Buenos Aires), Minujín decided to merge two typical traditions of the city such as sculptures of sea lions by José Fioravanti and the alfajores from Mar del Plata to give life to a new eternal work of art.

In August 2014, the skin change took place in a festive event in which about 10 thousand people participated. Minujín led this massive performance where those present removed the wrappings that covered the Wolf. Some 14 thousand packages were exchanged at Havanna stores, while the rest was left in the hands of those who wanted to keep a memory of this work of art, which has already become a new cultural icon.
Today

After 10 years, millions of visitors and hundreds of national and international artists, the MAR Museum became a reference center for contemporary art in South America. This year, it was established as km 0 of the latest edition of Bienalsur.

This summer, to celebrate this achievement and many more, the MAR Museum opens its doors to a significant number of activities that will begin from Friday, January 5 to February 24. There will be presentations by artists covering avant-garde musical expressions and experimentation, performance performances, symphonic chapters, electronic arts festivals and workshops, among other activations. All these proposals will be free and open access, and are part of the agenda of the Cultural Institute of the Province of Buenos Aires.

The entire program of the MAR Museum's anniversary celebration holidays can be found on its social networks and official website.