Established in 1995, Universidad Nacional Tres de Febrero, UNTREF, is a public institution distributed in several campuses. Its MUNTREF, Museo de la Universidad Nacional Tres de Febrero, opened in 2002 in the university's main site, across from the Caseros train station (Buenos Aires Province), and it is now devoted solely to modern art. The current exhibition is a felicitous tour through the intellectual biography and the work of Raquel Forner (Buenos Aires, 1902-1988). Raquel Forner: Presagios e invenciones de la modernidad brings forth the artist's range of interests and the modernity of her thought. One of the exhibition's nuclei is entered on "the dialogs", figurative works from the 1930s and 40s, paintings in the informalist style, and works inspired on the potential for a different future that, it was believed, space exploration offered mankind.
MUNTREF, Arts and Sciences is a pavilion that promises to remain in permanence in Tecnópolis, the science, art, and technology show inaugurated in 2011 and organized by the National Government in the north region of the Greater Buenos Aires. It opened in July with Morfologías de las miradas, by Mariano Sardón and Mariano Sigman, among other exhibitions. It comprises projections that reproduce, in large scale, portraits made on the basis of the eye movements of dozens of people.
Meanwhile, the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo and the Museo de la Inmigración are interconnected. They opened in September in one floor of the old Immigrants Hotel, next to the River Plate in the city of Buenos Aires. Devoted to contemporary art, CAC invites us to a "journey around the world" with videos selected by Alfons Hug, who confirms here his preference for working with that material, with its ease of transport and great visual potency.
The 16 international artists gathered by the curator for Miradas insobornables: imágenes en presente continuo do not disappoint. The roster includes outstanding productions that reflect upon the human condition and the state of the world, by Lida Abdul (Afghanistan), Darren Almond (England), Tanja Deman (Croatia), Sebastián Díaz Morales (Argentina), Inci Eviner (Turkey), Gianfranco Foschino (Chile), Chris Larson (US), Pablo Lobato (Brazil), Jhafis Quintero (Panama), Tobias Zielony (Germany), among others. Martín Sastre (Uruguay) presents U from Uruguay, a fragrance made with flowers from President José Mujica's farm; the proceeds from the sale of this perfume will go to finance fellowships for artists.
U from Uruguay is presented simultaneously as an installation of bottle, fragrance, photographs, and video at Ruth Benzacar gallery. Sastre plans to present his perfume as a gift to Argentine president Cristina Kirchner. A symbol of courtesy so that the Argentine government is less hostile towards its neighbor?
The Museo de la Inmigración is conceived "For everyone in the world". After several visits, we can confirm that the public comes seeking documentary materials rather than the contemporary art interventions exhibited alongside the testimonies of arrivals, uprootings, and encounters.
UNTREF's president Aníbal Y. Jozami is supported by Diana Wechsler in the institution's artistic projects, which now include three more museums.