Works of indigenous art were added to the Malba Collection

In mid-December, three works by indigenous artists were added to the Museum of Latin American Art in Buenos Aires, thanks to the management of the museum's Acquisitions Committee, which this year raised USD 300,000.

The works of the artist Jaider Esbell (born in Terra Indígena Raposa Serra do Sol, Brazil), the Lima artist Venuca Evanán and the Mayan-tz'utujil artist (Guatemala) Antonio Pichillá were added to the Malba Collection. In addition, works by eight Argentine artists and one Paraguayan artist are added thanks to private donations.

In the words of María Amalia García, Chief Curator of Malba: “It is a great joy that this year Malba has decided to acquire three pieces of indigenous art. In the last five years, there was a necessary opening of the contemporary circuit that implied, among other issues, the entry of these manifestations. This transformation involves a radical change in the appreciation of the cultural production of these communities: their inscription is no longer given by the historical representation made by Western art of the native populations, but rather it is the indigenous artists themselves who present their worldviews based on of productions that articulate ancestral traditions and contemporary languages. Currently, indigenous art's approach to the relationships between nature and human action acquires unusual relevance when it comes to reflecting on our ways of inhabiting the world."

The works were voted and chosen by the members of the Acquisitions Committee, based on a selection proposed by the museum's Artistic Committee, made up of Gonzalo Aguilar (UBA-Unsam/ Conicet), María Amalia García (Malba), Andrea Giunta (UBA / Conicet), Adriano Pedrosa (MASP, Brazil), Julieta González (independent curator, Mexico) and Octavio Zaya (independent curator, Boston/Tenerife). For this edition, the Malba curatorial committee summoned the contemporary Mapuche artist Seba Calfuqueo as an advisor for the museum's internal research.

These are the three works that are incorporated into the Malba Collection thanks to the Acquisitions Committee with the aim of continuing the representation of cultural productions from the continent from a plural and inclusive perspective:

Jaider Esbell (Normandia, Roraima, Brazil, 1979 – São Paulo, Brazil, 2021) was an indigenous artist, writer and manager who is among the central figures of the movement to consolidate contemporary indigenous art in Brazil. The large painting Untitled (2021) questions the Western understanding of the human-nature relationship as anthropocentric domination, in favor of a worldview that prioritizes a reciprocal human-non-human relationship. Andrea Giunta highlights “the international relevance that his work has at this time.”

My family (2023) by the artist, illustrator and activist Venuca Evanán (Lima, Peru, 1987) is an exponent of Sarhua panels, an emblematic form of Ayacucho art where Venuca made visible a fertile ground to tell stories of female liberation. The tables tell stories that are read from the bottom up and compose a kind of collective memory. Venuca's work honors her Sarhua tradition, speaks of migration, social injustice, and is energized by a feminine subjectivity that is not afraid to investigate her own traumas, desires and aspirations.

Abuelo (2014) by the artist Antonio Pichillá (San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala, 1982) is an artisanal textile whose technique was learned from his grandmothers to ensure the continuity of life and preservation of the Mayan tradition. The artist addresses aspects inherent to the worldview of his people and the importance of the ancestral, such as the organic and unitary correspondence with the natural universe, non-binary conceptions of reality and the syncretism that characterizes life in many Mayan communities today.

During 2023 and within the framework of arteBA, three other works were acquired thanks to the Acquisitions Committee: the Luna tapestry (1973) by the Salta artist, pioneer of Argentine textile art, Carlos Luis “Pajita” García Bes; the weaving Isajhie ma’a tá neckiejwuala (beautiful sunrise) (2023) by the artist Wichí Claudia Alarcón and the video Zero (2019) by Luiz Roque. Likewise, thanks to ICBC Argentina, the painting The Erotic Dreams of Millie Burton Gord (1989) by Mildred Burton was incorporated.

Works by Argentine artists Valentín Demarco, Karina El Azem, Edgardo Giménez, Julio Le Parc, Anita Payró, La Chola Poblete, Juan Pablo Renzi and Analía Saban and by Paraguayan artist Marcos Benítez are added to the collection thanks to the museum's donation system.

Based on the proposals that arrive periodically, the Malba Artistic Committee is in charge of evaluating and selecting the works that are then incorporated into the Collection. On this occasion, some works that were part of museum exhibitions were incorporated into the collection.