AppointmentJanuary 30, 2020
Amanda de la Garza, Director of MUAC and of the Visual Arts Department, UNAM
In an official announcement, Universidad Nacional Autónoma of Mexico announced the appointment of Amanda de la Garza as the new director of the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) and the university’s Visual Arts Department.
Amanda de la Garza has been working as MUAC's assistant curator since 2012, and will now replace Graciela de la Torre, who held both positions since 2008 and 2003, respectively. Like her predecessor, the new director will also oversee the operations of the Museo Experimental El Eco and the MUCA-Roma. Its academic and educational program sustains that “the university museum exists for the purpose of generating theoretical and critical knowledge, with a constantly expanding art collection that revitalizes the field of art collection in Mexico.
The new director's agenda proposes the continuity of the MUAC's substantive programs: exhibitions, and academic and educational programs, as well as collections. This implies both the consolidation and the expansion of several lines of action:
1. Artistic and intellectual productions based on a feminist perspective and with gender issues as a central element.
2. Emphasis will be placed on the research, exhibition and dissemination of MUAC's art and documentary collections. The collection will be placed at the center of the institution's activities. This stage will concentrate on modern and contemporary Mexican design in the field of public collections, with the objective of affirming the cultural, aesthetic and intellectual importance of artistic and archival collections.
3. Efforts will be made to redefine the museum's curatorial lines of action, insofar as many of the objectives set by the model initiated in 2013 have already been met.
4. One of the main objectives will be to integrate the activities carried out by the Office of the General Director of Visual Arts (DIGAV), including the programs of the Experimental Museum "El Eco" and the University Museum of Science and Art (MUCA-Rome). It is essential to improve the scope of activities carried out together with other universities, research institutes, schools and departments, as well as extracurricular social projects taking place outside UNAM.
5. Efforts will be made to expand and consolidate all partnership and funding networks. The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México has played a pioneering role in building public institutions as a result of an effective collaboration between professionals, the art community, and society.
Amanda de la Garza Mata (Monclova, 1981) is an art historian and curator. She lives and works in Mexico City, and has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology (UNAM), one master’s degree in Anthropological Sciences (UAM-I) and another one in Art History and Curatorial Studies (UNAM). In the institutional context, her practice has focused on video installation and archival-based art. She has curated exhibitions of well-known artists—with MUAC’s chief curator, Cuauhtémoc Medina—including Harun Farocki, Hito Steyerl, Jeremy Deller, Vicente Rojo, and Leandro Katz. De la Garza has directed several commissions for projects by emerging artists, both local and international, such as the Tlakolulokos collective, Verónica Gerber Bicecci, María José Argenzio, and Oscar Santillán. She recently cocurated the 17th Photography Biennial with the Centro de Imágenes; “Lecturas de un terreno fracturado” (Readings of a Fractured Territory), the first review of the Amparo Museum's contemporary art collection; and the Tlakolulokos collective's commission for the Los Angeles Central Library, in the context of the Getty Foundation's “Pacific Standard Time” initiative.
Amanda de la Garza has been working as MUAC's assistant curator since 2012, and will now replace Graciela de la Torre, who held both positions since 2008 and 2003, respectively. Like her predecessor, the new director will also oversee the operations of the Museo Experimental El Eco and the MUCA-Roma. Its academic and educational program sustains that “the university museum exists for the purpose of generating theoretical and critical knowledge, with a constantly expanding art collection that revitalizes the field of art collection in Mexico.
The new director's agenda proposes the continuity of the MUAC's substantive programs: exhibitions, and academic and educational programs, as well as collections. This implies both the consolidation and the expansion of several lines of action:
1. Artistic and intellectual productions based on a feminist perspective and with gender issues as a central element.
2. Emphasis will be placed on the research, exhibition and dissemination of MUAC's art and documentary collections. The collection will be placed at the center of the institution's activities. This stage will concentrate on modern and contemporary Mexican design in the field of public collections, with the objective of affirming the cultural, aesthetic and intellectual importance of artistic and archival collections.
3. Efforts will be made to redefine the museum's curatorial lines of action, insofar as many of the objectives set by the model initiated in 2013 have already been met.
4. One of the main objectives will be to integrate the activities carried out by the Office of the General Director of Visual Arts (DIGAV), including the programs of the Experimental Museum "El Eco" and the University Museum of Science and Art (MUCA-Rome). It is essential to improve the scope of activities carried out together with other universities, research institutes, schools and departments, as well as extracurricular social projects taking place outside UNAM.
5. Efforts will be made to expand and consolidate all partnership and funding networks. The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México has played a pioneering role in building public institutions as a result of an effective collaboration between professionals, the art community, and society.
Amanda de la Garza Mata (Monclova, 1981) is an art historian and curator. She lives and works in Mexico City, and has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology (UNAM), one master’s degree in Anthropological Sciences (UAM-I) and another one in Art History and Curatorial Studies (UNAM). In the institutional context, her practice has focused on video installation and archival-based art. She has curated exhibitions of well-known artists—with MUAC’s chief curator, Cuauhtémoc Medina—including Harun Farocki, Hito Steyerl, Jeremy Deller, Vicente Rojo, and Leandro Katz. De la Garza has directed several commissions for projects by emerging artists, both local and international, such as the Tlakolulokos collective, Verónica Gerber Bicecci, María José Argenzio, and Oscar Santillán. She recently cocurated the 17th Photography Biennial with the Centro de Imágenes; “Lecturas de un terreno fracturado” (Readings of a Fractured Territory), the first review of the Amparo Museum's contemporary art collection; and the Tlakolulokos collective's commission for the Los Angeles Central Library, in the context of the Getty Foundation's “Pacific Standard Time” initiative.
