Against the disappearance of MACAY

The collaborators of the cultural section of Proceso, whose edition became monthly, publish in these pages, week by week, their critical columns (Art, Music, Theater, Cinema, Books).

MEXICO CITY (process.com.mx).– Even though at first glance it might seem insolent, the action carried out by the renowned sculptor Rosario Guillermo at the MACAY Museum, last Wednesday, March 27, is a successful and pertinent piece of activism artistic.

Outraged by the reduction of spaces that the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has imposed on the Ateneo de Yucatán Museum of Contemporary Art (MACAY), the artist expressed her discontent through a spontaneous bodily action that consisted of displaying her naked buttocks. before INAH officials who have participated as mediators in the alteration of the property. Specifically, in the face of Luciano Cedillo Álvarez, who has been severely questioned as director of the INAH from 2005 to 2006 for leaving it in a situation of “financial, administrative and labor chaos” (“La Jornada”, November 29, 2006), he now collaborates with the current director, the archaeologist Diego Prieto.

Located in the building called Exateneo Peninsular or Exarzobispado, in front of Plaza Independencia, in Mérida, Yucatán, the MACAY is an especially valuable venue for two reasons: it is the only museum dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of modern and contemporary art throughout the Yucatan Peninsula; and also demonstrates the creative power of Yucatecan artists by exhibiting the collection of three great authors: Fernando García Ponce (1933-1987), Fernando Castro Pacheco (1918-2013), and Gabriel Ramírez (1938).

Inaugurated in 1994, MACAY is the product of an unlimited time agreement between the government of the state of Yucatán and the Macay Cultural Foundation, AC, the latter being responsible for both the administration of the property and the design and operation of the museum. Constituted from the Foundation’s collection, the museum stands out for exhibiting not only Yucatecan signatures but also works by international artists such as the Catalan Antoni Tápies and the American Robert Motherwell.

And alongside them, the presence of Mexican artists of contemporary languages ​​has always been a constant. Among the many creators who have occupied the rooms of MACAY are Ángela Gurría, Manuel Felguérez, Jesús Masyagoitia, Héctor de Anda, Gabriel Macotela, Demián Flores and Gerda Gruber, the teacher who promoted ceramic sculpture in Mexico.

Without taking into account the relevance of the services offered by MACAY – such as temporary exhibitions of top-level living artists and the organization of children’s workshops -, the INAH, since 2022, has intervened and remodeled some rooms without officially reporting on the purpose of the alteration and reduction of the museum. Based on what its director, Rafael Pérez y Pérez, points out, in a recent meeting, Luciano Cedillo mentioned the creation of a museum of nineteenth-century history of Mérida. An idea that, if carried out, would be highly questionable, since there is a Museum of the City of Mérida where this project could be located.

And precisely this lack of information and reduction of rooms were the causes that caused Rosario Guillermo to carry out her performative action. Convinced that the officials do not listen to the voices of the artists, the Yucatecan woman, who was restoring a piece of her property in the space called Expoforo, took advantage of the presence of those responsible for the alteration of the property to shout at them, with the audacity of her naked body, the rejection of his management.

Also aware of the right to culture that her citizen identity grants her, the sculptor bases her action on a defense that tries to prevent government theft of heritage. From her perspective and that of many other artists, MACAY is a heritage and cultural heritage that should not be replaced by any other museum. Passionate in her action and lucid in her thinking, Rosario Guillermo considers that the disappearance of MACAY would be a patrimonial theft.