Museum of Antioquia

The Antioquia Museum, former Municipal Palace, is a museum located in the center of Medellín that houses collections with international relevance. It was the first founded in the department of Antioquia and the second in Colombia. It is located in front of Plaza Botero, near the Parque Berrío metro station. In 1995 it was declared a national monument.

History

In 1872, a group of people made up of Dr. Manuel Uribe Ángel, Antonio José Restrepo (Ñito Restrepo) and Colonel Martín Gómez undertook the work of establishing the Zea Museum in honor of Francisco Antonio Zea, to integrate it into the library of the Sovereign State of Antioquia, in order for it to symbolize the educational and cultural interests of the society in question.

The first collections were made up of objects of historical, artistic and bibliographic value, belonging to their founders. Doctor Manuel Uribe Ángel offered to donate his collections with the sole requirement of being the first director of the museum.

As an emulation of the "Cabinets", the name under which the public exhibitions that gave rise to museums were made known; These works were exhibited so that the public could access the curiosities that some of the objects were commissioned. Other people found there a place for research and knowledge. The museum was a great support for the progress of the arts in Antioquia, since the artists saw their interests represented in the institution.

The heritage was represented in objects such as documents, weapons, flags and others that came from important historical periods in Antioquia and Colombia, from independence to the War of a Thousand Days. It also had pieces of pre-Columbian art, rocks, minerals, numismatic collections, some portraits of heroes and other curious objects. The library housed several thousand volumes, including historical, artistic and scientific volumes, many of them incunabula. In addition to the collection there was also an important compilation of the first newspapers published in the country.

The history of the museum has been strongly tied to that of the department of Antioquia. In 1886, the reform of the constitution was enacted and the Sovereign States disappeared, a status that Antioquia had until then. This forced us to define which entities became dependent on the central government and which would be dependent on the governorates. The museum continued to depend on the departmental administration.

When the museum was dismantled to make way for the construction of the Rafael Uribe Uribe Palace, as the headquarters of the government of Antioquia, part of the collection was stored and the other was sent to the University of Antioquia and the Academy of History of Antioquia, entities that still own them at the service of the community.

In 1946, Doña Teresa Santamaría de González and Doctor Joaquín Jaramillo Sierra, from the honor roll of the Public Improvement Society of Medellín - SMP, were concerned because the city did not have a representative museum. They proposed to reopen the museum, seeking to adopt a legal figure that would give autonomy to the museum and prevent any government from closing it. Thus, the museum was established as a private, non-profit entity, so that the institution depended only on a board of directors, as the highest governing body.

Gradually, an artistic museum was established, parallel to the historical one, with donated and purchased works, to increase the collections in quantity and importance.

In 1955, the museum finally had a headquarters dedicated exclusively to its operation, in the place where the first Brandy Factory previously operated and later, the Mint. This headquarters, today the Experimental Wing, is adjacent to the church of La Veracruz; It was loaned by the Bank of the Republic, when it moved to Bogotá. The municipality of Medellín was the entity in charge of taking over the building, for the exclusive use of the museum.

The museum received its legal status from the Government in 1953. Since that moment it has functioned as an autonomous and sovereign entity to govern its destiny.

Name change

In 1977 it changed its name. On this occasion it was renamed the Francisco Antonio Zea Museum of Art of Medellín. The reason for the change resulted from the need to avoid confusion in the local and international society that visited it: tourists did not understand the meaning of Zea and locals confused it with the Wax Museum, a traveling entity that remained for an extensive season in the city. city.

The teacher Fernando Botero made his first offer to donate works to the institution in 1978. Due to the ineffectiveness of its corporate name, he proposed that it be called the Museum of Antioquia, to provide it with an important identity related to the culture of the department. The change was accepted by the government of Antioquia. A resolution was issued on this issue, with the argument that the entity is autonomous in all management, including its name change, if this was considered necessary.

Renewal

In 1997 the process of institutional renewal began. At that time, the economic situation of the Museum was distressing and the number of annual visitors was low, which had led the institution to oblivion.

The Museum was considering acquiring a new headquarters at that time, with all the spatial and technical requirements for the optimal functioning of the entity. To do this, it resumes the offer that the teacher Fernando Botero had made to donate an important collection of his works, which would be annexed to the one that was already in the museum, if there was an appropriate space and give the institution an importance. elderly.

At that time numerous proposals arose as a possibility of development for the Museum of Antioquia: the Antioquia Liquor Factory of its current headquarters, the Rafael Uribe Uribe Palace of Culture, the old Municipal Palace, the grounds of the Corpaul Parking Lot, the lot of the Departmental Committee of Coffee Growers of Antioquia, the Cárcel de la Ladera, the Vásquez and Carré buildings and the Pasaje Sucre, were thought of as potential headquarters for the museum.

Finally, in the administration of Mayor Juan Gómez Martínez, the Project for the recovery of the Veracruz area and Relocation of the Museum of Antioquia were put into operation. With it, it sought to achieve two goals:

• Recover the area of La Veracruz. The project takes the Museum of Antioquia, as a detonating generator of changes for the center of Medellín. As a driver of the transformation, the Plaza Botero is built, a public space that houses 23 monumental sculptures donated by Botero.

• Adapt the Municipal Palace to the requirements of a modern museum, to accommodate the collections of the Museum of Antioquia and exhibit the donation of the master Fernando Botero.

The inauguration of the first stage of the renovation took place on October 15, 2000, with a children's display, five thousand children from all over the city became the first visitors. They cut the protocol ribbon and entered the Municipal Palace, converted into a museum, in the company of teacher Fernando Botero, who offered the first guided tour. The message was clear: the priority audience is children, without distinctions of any kind. That is why since then, all children under 12 years of age enter the museum for free.

On Thursday, October 23, 2014, the new permanent room at the Museum of Antioquia was inaugurated with the exhibition 68, 70, 72. Coltejer Art Biennials, which reviews these three meetings that established the city of Medellín in the international art scene.

The building

One of the most significant benefits in the renovation process of the Museum of Antioquia was to restore the splendor of the old Municipal Palace, transformed today into the main headquarters of the institution.

In 1931 the Medellín Council opened a competition that sought to reward the best design to build the new headquarters of the municipal administration. The requirements to participate were that the architects and materials were Colombian, and that the economic factor was taken into account.

In 1932, the jurors Tulio Medina, Rafael Toro, Pedro Nel Gómez, Jesús A. Mejía and Arturo Longas, unanimously chose the design presented by H. M. Rodríguez e Hijos, for «its successful distribution in the premises, its defined and easy circulation, its complete and well-studied sanitary installation, the harmonious and sober set of its facades, in which its character has been clearly defined. The approved tree plan required care not to hide the beauty of the building.

Inaugurated on October 12, 1937, the building was the headquarters of the Mayor's Office and the Council of Medellín, until 1988, when it passed into the hands of Empresas Públicas de Medellín. In 1995 it was declared a National Monument.

In the year 2000 the building became a museum. The conservation, restoration and adaptation works to the new use allow us to recover the original beauty of the structure, which, despite the alterations and attacks of which it was a victim over time, maintains its quality and architectural value. Among the spaces recovered for the enjoyment of visitors, the old Medellín Council complex stands out, today converted into an auditorium, with the imposing mural La República, by the master Pedro Nel Gómez permanently exhibited.

Basic building data

• Architect: Martín Rodríguez H. de H. M. Rodríguez e Hijos.
• Date construction: 1932 - 1937
• Lot area: 4 504 m²
• Extension main facade: 84.5 m
• Number of floors: Three, also has a semi-basement that works like one more floor.
• Style: Art deco
• Location: The building occupies an apple, located in the center of Medellín, between the 52 Carabobo and 53 Cundinamarca races, and the Avenida de Greiff and 52 Calibío street.

Collections

The collections were mostly obtained by donation from artists, artists' families and private collectors. Some have been obtained directly by the museum with its own resources or from monetary donations granted for that purpose.

These efforts have allowed the progressive growth, both in quantity and quality, of the institution's artistic collections throughout its history.

These are the collections that the museum has:

Exhibition Halls

The museum has seventeen permanent exhibition rooms:

The Museum House

The previous headquarters of the Museum, located next to the church of La Veracruz, is still linked to the entity. The building, where the first liquor factory in Antioquia previously operated and, later, the Mint, was converted into a museum in 1955.

With the transfer of the main headquarters to the Municipal Palace in 2000, the house began to transform into the Experimental Wing of the Museum of Antioquia. For this, civil works have been carried out, renovating the old structures and creating new spaces projected by the institution.

In the Experimental Wing, the Museum offers the Jaime Hincapié Santamaría library, a cinema room for 130 people, the cultural directorate offices, three rooms for temporary exhibitions and the children's workshop.

Botero Square

In 2002, Botero Square was inaugurated, located in front of the main façade of the Museum of Antioquia. It has 7

000 square meters in which 23 monumental sculptures made by Fernando Botero are permanently exhibited in public spaces.

Botero's sculptures

360 Museum

Since 2016, with the arrival to the direction of María del Rosario Escobar, the Museum of Antioquia has undertaken the Museum 360 project, which seeks to profile the museum as a space for meeting and reflection that « recognizes the reality of the city, instead of hiding it" with the aim of working to "resolve historical debts of exclusion and discrimination" and to overcome " the inability to understand the other, in the midst of the fear of being different." According to Escobar, the mission of the museum is to "review history and its stories, and create new stories that are inclusive." and allow us to understand that the problems of the city and its protagonists exist. "This type of exercise makes us reflect on the historical paths that have led to the present of a society and the role that cultural institutions play in these processes.

Among the museum projects that are part of this institutional transformation and that emanate from institutional practices of critical curation is the new conception of permanent galleries in which we reflect on the function of art and the museum in the construction of exclusive collective imaginaries. Another example is the artistic residency project of Nadia Granados who, together with curator Carolina Chacón and a group of sex workers from downtown Medellín, created in 2017 the award-winning cabaret/performance No one knows who I am From this moment on, the group created the collective Las guerreras del centro, with the aim of highlighting the lives and stories of sex workers through artistic creations, knitting circles and others. community actions.

Nobody knows who I am was the beginning of a series of curatorial collaborations and mediation projects resulting from the joint work of Las guerreras del centro and the Museum of Antioquia. This type of collaborative project constitutes a destigmatizing and empowering critical museology practice that opens new exchanges and social dialogues inside and outside the museum. These spaces emerge from the museum, forge links beyond the museum walls, and dramatically transform the museum's relationship with its social environment.