Argentinean curator Victoria Noorthoorn was appointed last month the new Director of the Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires.
Her predecessor, Laura Buccellato, who directed the museum for over a decade—since 1997—last year demanded of several important Argentinean artists that they donate their work as a condition to participate in an exhibition organized by the museum. Some of the artists that were called to participate in that exhibition refused to accept such conditions and in response formed the group Artistas Organizados (Organized Artists).
Victoria Noorthoorn takes on her new responsibilities at a time when the museum is undergoing a process of "normalization." Founded in 1956, the Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires is located in the historic neighborhood of San Telmo. Its permanent collection includes works by artists like Ennio Iommi, Hlito, Le Parc, Maldonado, Kandinsky, Matisse and Arden Quinn, among others. Under Noorthoorn's leadership the Museum will undergo a structural reform that involves the creation of several departments, including an Education Department and a Fundraising Department. This new agenda also proposes a work team integrated by professionals that "outlast the director," share their knowledge and work toward the creation of a museum that is "alive," open to the public and even (…) one that is welcoming of a diverse public… as it also focuses on the museum's patrimony and on having the pulse of the cultural life in Buenos Aires in terms of artistic creation." (*Diario Clarín, Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 28, 2013).
Noorthoorn's administration will become evident beginning on October, with exhibitions by artists like Jorge Maachi, Luciana Lamothe, Karina Peisajovich, Graciela Hasper, Lucio Dorr and two actions by Gyula Kosice in public spaces.
Victoria Noorthoorn has a BA in Art History from the Universidad de Buenos Aires and completed an MA in Curatorial Studies at Bard College in New York. She works at the MoMA and at the Drawing Art Center in New York and at MALBA-Fundación Costantini. She was Curator at the 11th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art, in 2011; at the 7th Mercosul Biennial: Shout and Listen (2009). Noorthoorn was also co-curator of the 41st National Salon in Cali, Colombia (2008) and Head Curator of the Pontevedra Art Biennial in Spain (2006). She curated several exhibitions and retrospectives (Marta Minujín, Lamba 2010), and collaborated with the presentation of León Ferrari at the 52nd Venice Biennale, in which this artist received the Golden Lion Award. Noorthoorn was nominated for The Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Excellence in 2011, organized by the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas.
More information is available the homepage of the Museo de Arte Moderno-Buenos Aires: http://museos.buenosaires.gob.ar/mam2.htm