Juniin Gallery, Guayaqueer, Casa del Barrio settled in the historic center of the city. Exhibitions such as those of Olga Dueñas and Peter Musfeldt stood out.
2021 could be considered a year in which the visual arts stomped on the different galleries and museums of the country. It is correct to say that the artist by nature lives his own self-confinement to create in the noise of his silence, but it is known that this canvas, sculpture or mural really fulfills its function when it is exposed and contemplated by the general public. The reopening of many spaces and the opening of others were the best ‘pretext’ not only for the reunion, but also to take note of the dialogues that the artists built around the pandemic.
A museum with the smell of cocoa …
In an open-air ceremony, on Wednesday, July 28, 2021, the National Museum of Cacao, that rises in one of the first cement houses in the style Art Nouveau, located in the streets Panamá and Imbabura. The museum is made up of two floors with fifteen rooms, which take a journey through the agricultural tradition and the social and economic development of cocoa, from its splendor to the collapse of its plantations.
In addition, on the ground floor it is installed the chocolate Factory, developed by the French chocolatier Jean Paul Burrus, which shows visitors the entire process necessary to transform the cocoa bean into a chocolate bar. The museum became a reality after seven years of management by the Municipal Public Tourism Company.
In its Mucao room, group exhibitions are held, at the moment it is presented Fragmented writings of memory, in which thirteen artists participate, mostly young talents. Schedule: Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Entry: For foreigners over 12 years old the cost is $ 5.
Opening of city spaces with young talents
The streets of Guayaquil are witnessing how the artistic trend takes center stage at the hands of young minds. This year new cultural centers and galleries were opened, one of them was the Galería Juniin, in Junín 455 and Baquerizo Moreno. This space was inaugurated on June 5 by the artist, researcher and curator Libbi Ponce, who had the support of the curator Elisa Estrada. The purpose of the space is to disseminate the work of independent artists. At the moment it exhibits 11 hours of clouds, from Bark4kisses, until January 14, from Friday to Saturday from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Free entry.
The LGBTIQ + and feminist cultural center Guayaqueer, in Tomás Martínez 203 between Panama and Pedro Carbo, It was also another of the spaces that were born in 2021, after a virtual presence since 2017. Added to The Commonwealth from Muégano Theater, seeks to make visible the proposals for change and social transformation that involve this sector of the community. Space is youth driven Víctor García, Stephano Espinoza, Sara Donoso and Andrea Alejandro. Discussions, workshops, film screenings, exhibitions take place here, as well as the sale of t-shirts, bags, pins, mugs, posters, postcards and stickers. They plan to create the Guayaqueer school, where they would begin a process of literacy and training in matters of human rights, history, politics, among others. And at the moment they are in the application of funds to be able to sustain the space.
Moved by her love of the arts, influenced in part by her mother who is a collector, Giuliana Vargas adapted what was previously the Espacio Vacío gallery to open the doors of Neighborhood House, in Panama and Juan Montalvo. A space described by its founder as a live catalog in which the works of contemporary art can be appreciated with all the senses. This also presents other activities related to culture in general, such as talks, movie nights, and more. Works of Santiago Reyes, Ilich Castillo, María José Argenzio, Claudia Hidalgo and Ricardo Coello Gilbert. The hours of operation are from Tuesday to Friday from 12:30 to 17:00 and Saturdays from 10:00 to 14:00.
And to culminate this review of the new spaces that were built this year in the city, Gallery 64 joins this list with a special proposal for lovers of antique dealers, art in its different expressions, and a good coffee, wine or craft beer. It is a gallery bar that recently opened on December 15 on the streets Boyacá 604 and Luque, in a patrimonial palace of the XIX century. The opening hours are from Monday to Friday, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The idea was born from Francisco Cepeda, a lawyer who loves art, culture and antiquities, who instilled in his 7 children the love of curatorship and museography, however he is his second son Jacobo Cepeda Luzárraga (Executive Director), who crystallized his dream of turning his former law firm into an art gallery open to the public.
Reopening of museums and cultural spaces
At the beginning of this year, the already established museums of Guayaquil reopened their doors, although with a bit of suspicion and of course with the biosafety measures being complied with to the letter. Some like him MAAC They opted for guided tours by appointment, to better control capacity. Exhibitions like COVID Pro: professionals in the pandemic, from Nuno Acosta and Andrés Seminario, They bet in February to be one of the first to receive the public in person with a photographic exhibition that paid tribute to local businessmen who continued ahead in the midst of the pandemic. One of the most gratifying exhibits, a symbol of self-managed effort, was picturing surviving in March, that moved from the walls of Facebook to the walls of the museum, with the participation of more than 170 artists from fourteen countries, such as Cuba, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, among others.
However, the summit exhibition and that took three rooms of the MAAC was A retrospective, scored by Olga Dueñas. Seventy frames, among which abstractionism and kineticism stand out, they were the perfect way to explore the broad artistic career of the Ecuadorian since 1940. In Dueñas’s words, this exhibition marked his path to kinetic painting well. “It is the synthesis of everything I have felt, seen and lived: light, color, shapes, lines and harmony.” The exhibition was prepared before the pandemic, in this way there were some appointments by Zoom to later specify the face-to-face visit between the curator Monica Espinel de Reich and Dueñas, in Florida (where he resides in the United States). “There are seven decades of work by an artist who, at 95, lucidly, has allowed herself to reflect on her journey in the world of abstraction,” said the curator.
Another of the spaces that were in constant motion was the Fountain Square, located in Lagos Square (km 6.5 of Samborondón avenue). In August, the space had the honor of hosting the last individual exhibition that the father of graphic design in Ecuador carried out while he was alive. It was about the sample Portrait of a stranger, of the remembered Peter Mussfeldt, a compilation of 20 works with unfamiliar faces that crossed his path and that – in a time of introspection – he decided to capture during the pandemic. “They are the encounters throughout my life with people in different places, people I do not know but who struck me with their gaze and their expressions, which I tried to capture in my new work”, The artist who left on November 20 at the age of 83 expressed in an interview for this newspaper. And that he managed to fulfill his desire to present his most recent work to the public again.
An exhibition that gave a lot to talk about and that felt like a celebration of presence -after being postponed last year- was the Nomads Biennial that took place from June to September in three museums in Guayaquil: Nahim Isaías Museum, Presley Norton and MAAC. The traveling project brought together the works of more than 80 artists from 17 countries, who discussed Guayaquil identity from their own point of view. “It fills me with pleasure, it makes my heart happy to see people circulating again, after this tremendous crisis”, stated at this time Hernan Pacurucu, one of the curators of the biennial together with Victor Hugo Bravo.
Similarly, spaces like municipal Museum reopened their doors to the public in March with the exhibition Women in the July Salon Prize Collection (1959-2019), under the curatorship of the manager Matilde Ampuero. The winning works of Mariella García, Pamela Hurtado, Janneth Méndez, Hellen Constante, María Gabriela Chérrez, Pamela Cevallos, Lorena Peña, Mayra Silva, Mónica López and Diana Gardeneira, with the purpose of making a historical reunion of the presence of women in this municipal contest.
The work of young artists continued to find a space to dialogue with the public in spaces such as Gallery Mz14, Maldonado Workshop Y Onder space. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
