MoMA showcases “radical originality” of LatAm architecture

With the exhibition “Latin America in Construction: Architecture 19551980,” New York’s Museum of Modern Art acknowledges its own ignorance of the innovative ways that architects from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego responded to political and social turbulence and an unprecedented demographic explosion.

“The major motivation for this exhibition came when I realized I had three art degrees in the United States and I have been taught nothing about Latin America,” curator Barry Bergdoll told Efe ahead of the March 29 opening.

This spectacular and encyclopedic exhibit shows the construction of Brasilia from scratch in the 1950s, designs for the Peugeot Building in Buenos Aires, Miguel Rodrigo Mazure’s mockups for a neverrealized initiative to erect a hotel at Peru’s Machu Picchu, and the unfinished project for the National Schools of the Arts in Cuba.

Bergdoll conducted four years of research in collaboration with curators in Argentina and Brazil and with assistance from experts in other Latin American countries.

The aim was to “recover the radical originality” of a Latin American architecture all too often disregarded by the United States and Europe, he said.

“If from now on these works become part of the curricula and textbooks, then the exhibition will have been a success,” according to Bergdoll, who has brought together works by architects such as Brazilian legend Oscar Niemeyer, Mexico’s Luis Barragan and Chilean Emilio Duhart.

The exhibit starts with panels showing the evolution of various Latin American capitals. Visitors are welcomed with images depicting how streets broadened as population grew, how modes of transport changed and how healthcare improved.

Next comes the substance: chronologies pinpointing political events, largesize mockups exposing the inner parts of lowincome housing projects, such as Lima’s Experimental Housing Project or PREVI, or sports facilities, including a stadium in Mendoza, Argentina.

It has been 60 years since MoMA last devoted an exhibition to Latin American architecture and the institution’s current director, Glenn David Lowry, said was determined not to miss this one.

Also attending the media presentation were Patricio del Real, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA; Carlos Eduardo Comas, guest curator, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil; and Jorge Francisco Liernur, guest curator, Universidad Torcuato di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina.