To mark its 70th Anniversary, the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires presents the Habitando el futuro [Our Home, The Future] symposium, a series of encounters with Argentinian and international artists, researchers, designers and curators with a view to exploring humanity’s questions about the future.
The symposium is part of the framework of the 2026 Annual Programme, Habitando el futuro [Our Home, The Future] and an invitation to all of us, as a community, to imagine ways of making Earth a better place. In this context, the Museo Moderno looks to open a space for exchanges and reflections on art as a means of generating knowledge: a framework to re-examine the images we have inherited from the world, to imagine other relationships between culture and nature, and to raise questions about the ways in which we inhabit the Earth, such as how artistic practices can help us rethink our ways of life in a time of profound social, technological and environmental changes.
These questions will be addressed at different lectures, interviews, roundtables and guided visits led by artists, in dialogue with the exhibitions, where the very narratives of modernity will be examined and new relationships between nature, science and the poetics of art will be explored.
Participants: Alfredo Aracil, Jonathas de Andrade (Brazil), Joaquín Aras, Erica Bohm, Grupo Bondi, Franco Chimento, Ariel Cusnir, Marta Minujín, Victoria Noorthoorn, Patricio Orellana, Leonardo Puppo, Valentina Quintero, Deon Rubi, Cristina Schiavi, Max Hooper Schneider (United States), Felix Shumba (Zimbabwe), Paulo Tavares (Brazil).
4:30 p.m. | Welcome
Welcome remarks by Victoria Noorthoorn, director of the Museo Moderno.
5 p.m. | Lecture: Jonathas de Andrade (Brazil)
Introduction by Patricio Orellana, head of the Curatorial Department at the Museo Moderno.
In this lecture, Jonathas de Andrade will discuss the important milestones of his career, focusing, in particular, on works included in the Moderno exhibition, Naturaleza Arquitecta [Nature, The Architect]. From emblematic works such as O peixe [The Fish], to his most recent project, Jangadeiros e Canoeiros [Raftsmen and Canoeists], created with fishermen from north-eastern Brazil, in which he explores colour and abstraction and traces connections between the Brazilian Neo-Concrete movements and the folk traditions of the north-eastern fishermen.
6 p.m. | Conversation: Marta Minujín (Argentina) with Victoria Noorthoorn, director of the Museo Moderno
Marta Minujín will examine her history with the Museo Moderno, looking back at its origins, some of the events of its foundation and her relationships with the museum’s first directors, such as Rafael Squirru and Hugo Parpagnoli. She will also discuss the touring edition of La Menesunda según Marta Minujín [La Menesunda according to Marta Minujín] and her participation in Darkness Visible: The Long Shadow of Dictatorship – the Moderno’s exhibition at Venice – beginning with her monuments to democracy and her practices of political memory. Finally, there will be a discussion of those pioneering works that bridge art and nature, in conjunction with the Habitando el futuro [Our Home, The Future].
5 p.m. | Roundtable: Contemporary Argentinian design in the Moderno collection
With Grupo Bondi, Deon Rubi and Leonardo Puppo. Moderated by Franco Chimento, Curator of Design at the Museo Moderno.
Three young designers will discuss contemporary Argentinian design as a field shaped by tensions between design, industry, art, craft and artisanal practices. The conversation will reflect on the challenges of work today, production conditions, circulation patterns and hybrid economies, by exploring new ways of thinking about objects in the contemporary scene.
6 p.m. | Lecture: Paulo Tavares (Brazil)
Introduction by Alfredo Aracil, head of the Education Department at the Museo Moderno.
Brazilian architect and writer Paulo Tavares – a source of great inspiration for the development of our exhibition Naturaleza Arquitecta [Nature, The Architect] – will examine his career, including his research in the Amazon, his thoughts about forests as a cultural territory and Amazonian nature as an architect. He will also discuss his work towards the decolonisation of the Brazilian modernist tradition.
4 p.m. | A guided visit of the exhibition Naturaleza arquitecta [Nature, The Architect], led by participating artists
With Ariel Cusnir (Argentina) and Felix Shumba (Zimbabwe).
The artists will share the process behind their works and reflect on the relationship between image, architectural space and public experience in Buenos Aires and in southern Africa.
5 p.m. | A guided visit of the exhibition Océano interior [The Ocean Within], led by participating artists
With Max Hooper Schneider (United States) and Erica Bohm (Argentina).
In this detailed exploration of their works, the artists will share their research into oceans, art and science.
6 p.m. | A guided visit of the exhibition Moderno y MetaModerno: Edición 70 Aniversario [Moderno & MetaModerno: [Moderno & MetaModerno: 70th Anniversary Edition], together with participating artists
With Cristina Schiavi, Joaquín Aras and Valentina Quintero.
This visit provides a glimpse of Moderno y MetaModerno: Edición 70 Aniversario [Moderno & MetaModerno: 70th Anniversary Edition], an exhibition of works from the museum’s collection, guided by some of the artists whose works engage with important figures from art history from a contemporary perspective.
Jonathas de Andrade (Maceió, 1982) lives and works in the north-east of Brazil in Recife, a coastal city rich in contrasts, where old colonial buildings nestle amidst modern skyscrapers and where the failure of the tropical modernist utopia is a tangible reality. Anthropology, pedagogy, politics and morals are the lines of inquiry pursued by the artist to recount the paradoxes of modernist culture. De Andrade uses photography, installation and video to traverse collective memory and history, making use of strategies that shuffle fiction and reality. He collects and catalogues images, texts, life stories and material on architecture to recompose a personal narrative of the past. He lives and works in Brazil.
Marta Minujín (Buenos Aires, 1943) is a pioneering Argentinian visual artist who is known for her avant-garde, playful and interactive work. She studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes Manual Belgrano and the Escuela Nacional de Arte Prilidiano Pueyrredón, both in Buenos Aires. In 1961, she received a grant to study in Paris, where she created her first performance piece, La destrucción [The Destruction] (1963). On her return to Buenos Aires, she won the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella’s National Prize for Revuélquese y viva [Roll Around and Live] (1964), her first interactive installation. In 1965, she co-created, together with Rubén Santantonín, La Menesunda, an innovative multi-sensory experience. This was followed in 1966 by a Guggenheim Fellowship award, enabling her to go to New York, where she collaborated in major media projects such as Simultaneity in Simultaneity (with Allan Kaprow and Wolf Vostell) and Minuphone (1967). She spent the 1970s moving back and forth between the United States and Argentina, presenting iconic works and performances including: Interpenning (1972), Kidnappening (1973), La academia del fracaso [The Academy of Failure](1975) and Comunicando con Terra [Communicating with Earth] (1976). Her work – characterized by the use of colour, humour, social commentary and ephemeral materials, such as mattresses and inflatables – has been exhibited around the world, cementing her place as a key figure in contemporary Latin American art. She lives and works in Buenos Aires.
A Buenos Aires-based design studio, Grupo Bondi was founded in 2008 by Iván López Prystajko and Eugenio Gómez Llambí, both of whom are industrial designers and graduates of the Faculty of Architecture and Design, Universidad de Buenos Aires. The group focuses on industrial design – street furniture, in particular – as a form of artistic intervention in the public space. Grupo Bondi designs and produces objects that are based on tapping into the universal poetics of the everyday. Bondi is a lunfardo, or slang, term for the public buses seen in Argentina’s urban centres. Grupo Bondi shows it is possible to engage with the world from the margins while still being seen as contemporary by the mainstream. López Prystajko and Gómez Llambí both live and work in Buenos Aires.
Lucila Garcia de Onrubia (Buenos Aires, 1986) has worked under the alias ‘Deon Rubi’ since 2014. She studied Audiovisual Arts and Communications at the Universidad del Cine and Audiovisual Arts at the Florida International University. She works in a wide range of mediums, from jewellery to design and sculpture, often resulting in hybrid works that include different disciplines. She has held exhibitions in galleries, museums and fairs in Argentina and abroad, including at the Central Fine Gallery, Design Miami, the MALBA, NADA Miami, ArteBA and Sight Unseen. Deon Rubi is also the co-director and founder of the Mueble Escultura project. She lives and works in Buenos Aires.
Leonardo Puppo (Chaco, 1984) is a furniture designer and manufacturer. In 2012, he founded the brand Mestizo in Córdoba. It specialises in designing and producing pieces that combine wood and metal, with a distinct handcrafted look. In 2016, he received the First Basilio Uribe Prize for Industrial Design – awarded by the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes – for his Saburáu collapsible coat rack, made from solid wood. He has exhibited his work in different contexts related to Argentinian contemporary design; furthermore, he participated as a representative of Argentinian design on the world stage as a participant in the ‘Santa Fe Design Hub’ section of the 13th edition of Barcelona Design Week, held in 2018. In 2021, the Fondo Nacional de las Artes opened a Call for Proposals to Promote Domestic Production; Puppo was awarded the grant, which enabled him to begin a new line of work exploring design in collaboration with artisans. The experience led to the Kaylla collection (2022), which combines contemporary materials with traditional basketry techniques. In 2023, the collection won the Gold Prize at the Salón del Mueble Argentino [Argentine Furniture Salon]. In 2024, he participated in the group exhibition Asentados. Sillas en Tierra Argentina [Seated: Chairs in Argentina], curated by Franco Chimento and Andrea Chaine and held at Rosario’s Museo Municipal de Arte Decorativo Firma y Odilo Estévez. He lives and works in Córdoba.
Paulo Tavares (Campinas, 1980) is an architect, writer and teacher. His field of study encompasses architecture, visual cultures and the defence of rights. He specialises in multi-media projects and has been featured in various exhibitions, biennials and publications. He is the author of several books that question the colonial legacy of modern times, including: Des-habitat (2019), Memória da Terra (2020) and Derechos no-humanos (2022). He was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale – together with Gabriela de Matos – for their curatorial project, Terra. That same year, ArchDaily selected Tavares as having one of the Best Architecture Practices. He was co-curator of the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial and part of the Curatorial Advisory Committee of the 2019 Sharjah Biennial. He currently lectures at Columbia GSAPP and at the University of Brasilia. He is also director of Autónoma, an agency that uses design tools as instruments for justice and socio-spatial and environmental reconciliation. He lives and works in Brazil.
Max Hooper Schneider (Los Angeles, 1982) received his Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design and his Bachelor’s degrees in Urban Design and Biology from New York University, with additional studies in Marine Biology and Entomology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Santa Monica College. He has shown in solo exhibitions at prominent museums and institutions internationally, including UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, MO.CO Montpellier Musée Contemporain, and the Hammer Museum. His museum group exhibitions include The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Akron Art Museum, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Schinkel Pavillon, Leeum Museum of Art, Kistefos Museum, and Musée d’art moderne de Paris. Hooper Schneider has been included in a number of international biennial exhibitions, including the 12th SITE Santa Fe, 15th Gwangju Biennale, 16th Istanbul Biennial, 13th Baltic Triennial, and the Mongolia Land Art Biennial. He lives and works in the United States.
Erica Bohm (Buenos Aires, 1976) is a visual artist. She is interested in exploring alternative ways of engaging with light and time, in a search that centres on observing the energy emitted by different astronomical phenomena. In 2015, she travelled to Antarctica and, in 2018, to the Svalbard archipelago, near the North Pole. Bohm used both excursions to research different geological, meteorological and geomagnetic phenomena. She has been making crystals in her workshop for over fifteen years. She is a graduate of the Escuela de Arte Prilidiano Pueyrredón. Bohm was the recipient of the Creation Grant from the Fondo Nacional de las Artes in 2008, 2015 and 2021, and of the 2004–2005 TRAMA grant. She was also a fellow of the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella’s Artist’s Programme (2009) and its Cinema Lab (2012). She has participated in several artist-in-residence programmes, including: the El Leoncito National Parks Programme, San Juan (2023); the Art Residency in Antarctica (2015); the San Martín-Móvil Residency, San Martín de los Andes (2014); and the Mapping Exchange: Artist Residency Program, at the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, U.S.A. (2009). She has received several distinctions, including: 8M Acquisition Award, Argentinian Ministry of Culture (2023); Second Prize in the Acquisition Category at the 22nd Klemm Prize (2018); Honourable Mention at the FNA Prize (2018). She was invited by La Intermundial Holobiente collective to participate at Documenta Fifteen in Kassel, Germany (2022). Her work has been featured in A 18 minutos del sol [18 Minutes from the Sun], Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires; Simbiología. Prácticas artísticas en un planeta en emergencia [Symbiology: Artistic Practices on a Planet in Crisis], CCK (2021); Mundos alternos: Art and Science Fiction in the Americas, Queens Museum, N.Y. (2019); Ecologías [Ecologies], Museo Sívori (2018), La mirada en el límite [A Gaze at the Limit], Fundación Federico Jorge Klemm (2017), among others. She lives and works in Buenos Aires.
Ariel Cusnir (Buenos Aires, 1981) holds a National Diploma in Drawing from the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Lola Mora and a degree in Sculpture from the Escuela Nacional de Arte Prilidiano Pueyrredón. He has attended workshops and clinics led by Pablo Siquier, Ernesto Ballesteros, Leopoldo Estol, Viviana Blanco, Fernanda Laguna, Roberto Jacobi, and more. He completed studies in oriental watercolour and sumi-e at Tomás Yamada’s Escuela Yamada Ryu. In 2000, Cusnir founded the Vanguardia art gallery in a suburb of Buenos Aires, and later took part in the Appetite gallery and project in Buenos Aires. He was a fellow at the Centro de Investigaciones Artísticas (CIA), and is currently a lecturer in Art at the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF). His works can be found in public and private collections in Argentina, the United States, Switzerland, France, Brazil, Ecuador, Spain, Peru, Mexico and the United Kingdom. Exhibitions include Rara felicidad la de los tiempos [What a Rare Joy Those Times Were], Cabildo de Buenos Aires (2021-2022); Los Rojos [The Reds], Pasto Galería (2019); Trago largo [Long Drink], together with Máximo Pedraza, Centro Cultural San Martín (2015); Vidas ajenas [Other People’s Lives], Galería Fernando Pradilla, Madrid (2008); Río abajo [Downstream], Centro Cultural Recoleta (2007), among others. He lives and works in Buenos Aires.
Felix Shumba (Bulawayo, 1989). A multidisciplinary artist, Shumba’s practice spans drawing, painting, video, text, and installation. He deconstructs real and imagined spaces, which he refers to as Fold Fields Space (FFS), areas haunted by death, trauma, ecological damage, and the use of military force as a tool of control. Shumba’s work engages with masking and concealment, using dystopian imagery to address the rituals of power that have perpetuated racial capitalist extraction. Through these works, he examines the history of settler-colonial Rhodesia and brings viewers closer to understanding contemporary challenges in Zimbabwe. He currently lives and works in Masvingo, Zimbabwe. Recent exhibitions include: Panorama Pozzuoli, Italics Art, Pozzuopli, Naples, Italy (2025); Felix Shumba and Martin Seeds: Nervous Lines, Koop Projects, Brighton, UK (2024); Untitled, Edition Verso, FNB Art Fair, Johannesburg, SA (2023); Thinking Historically In The Present, Sharjah Biennial 15, Sharjah, UAE (2023); Felix Shumba vs. Kiluanji Kia Henda: Memories From The Poisoned River, Museum of Natural History and Jahmek Contemporary Art, Luanda, Angola (2023); On the Edge, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, SA (2022). He currently lives and works in Masvingo, Zimbabwe.
Joaquín Aras (Buenos Aires, 1985) is a visual artist and audiovisual producer. His work focuses on the emotional distance between the audience and the media, and how storytelling can preserve memory and challenge the historical narrative. He holds a degree in Communications (UCA) and a Master’s degree in Philosophy, Art and Critical Thought from EGS (Switzerland). He participated in the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella’s Artist’s Programme (2012) and its Cinema Lab (2013). He has attended workshops led by Martín Bonadeo and Diana Aisenberg. His solo shows include exhibitions at Isla Flotante (2012, 2013), Museo La Ene (2014), Móvil (2016), Cine York (2018) and Piedras (2019, 2021). He has taken part in group exhibitions at the Museo Moderno (Argentina), MAC-Niterói (Brazil), MNAV (Uruguay), Lund Konsthall (Sweden), Taipei CAC (Taiwan) and Grand Union (UK). His works have been selected for the Braque Prize, the Buenos Aires Biennial for Young Art, Bienalsur and the Salón Nacional. He received an Honourable Mention for the 21st Klemm Prize. He has received grants from the FNA, Fundación Telefónica, the Oxenford Collection, as well as the Plataforma Futuro Prize and the 2023 CIFO-Ars Electronica Prize. He was selected for the CCA Kitakyushu Fellowship Programme 2018/2019 (Japan). He was awarded the 2019/2020 Gasworks + URRA residency, with the support of Érica Roberts and in partnership with arteBA. He lives and works in Buenos Aires.
Valentina Quintero (Mendoza, 1997), also known as Valentine, is a visual artist, singer and performer. She completed a Higher Technical Diploma in Multimedia Design at IES Manuel Belgrano, and a Bachelor’s degree and a teaching qualification in Visual Arts at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. She has continued her training in the visual arts and theatre under the guidance of Marisa Rossini, Silvio Lang, María Godoy, Mario Scorzelli, Constanza Giuliani, Pilar Altilio and Diana Aisenberg. She began her artistic career in 2015, working with the Ricarda Espinosa artistic collective. She later set out on her own, creating performances, installations and happenings. She has held several solo shows, including: Chicos confundidos y yo [Confused Boys and Me], ECA, Mendoza (2023), Templo II, Valerie’s Factory, Buenos Aires (2023), Miro la vida pasar [Watching Life Go By], Casa Colmena, Mendoza (2019), Vesti la Giubba, Proyecto Galería, Buenos Aires (2019), Scary Mostra, Imagen Galería, Mendoza, (2018); Templo, Imagen Galería, Mendoza (2017), Red Carpet, Museo Municipal de Arte Moderno, Mendoza (2016) y Un día en la vida [A Day in the Life], Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (2025). She has also participated in several group exhibitions: Casi Ángeles [Almost Angels], Galería Barro, Buenos Aires (2023), Twinks vs Dolls, Galería Hipopoety, Buenos Aires (2023) y Arte, género y política [Art, Gender and Politics], Biblioteca San Martín, Mendoza (2018), and others. She lives and works in Buenos Aires.