ABSTRACT
The chapter examines the foundation of the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (MAMBO) during the period from 1955 to 1963. In 1955 two artists’ organizations, the Asociación Nacional de Escritores y Artistas de Colombia and the Movimiento Nacional de Artes Plásticas, advocated for the initiation of the first museum project, an idea that the government of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla supported at that time. Certain political conditions led to the failure of this initiative, resulting in changes to and reassessments of the initial idea, and ultimately resulting in Gabriel Serrano Camargo’s 1957 architectural design for the museum. MAMBO’s early years, after its refoundation in 1962, when the Argentinian Colombian art critic Marta Traba was nominated director of the institution, is also discussed. This chapter reveals a complex political and cultural scheme that encompassed multiple actors, affecting MAMBO’s creation. The lack of a building to define the museum project also marked its development, as well as the pedagogical and communication strategies the museum’s promoters deployed in 1962 in order to initiate activities without an official space. The chapter questions architectural space as an axiom for the consolidation of museum discourses, the relationship between architecture and modern art, and the prominence given to Marta Traba as MAMBO’s founder.
