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The Casa Alberto Heredia residence for artists and art professionals is a new undertaking of the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, an institution of the Ministry of Culture of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires. The residence takes place in what was once the home of Argentinian artist Alberto Heredia (Buenos Aires, 1924–2000), who bequeathed it posthumously to the Museo Moderno along with more than 500 of his works, works from his personal collection and his archive. The process of incorporating this bequest into the Museo Moderno began in 2000, after Heredia passed away. After several years of negotiations and major architectural renovations, the house reopened its doors in September 2023 and took on its new life as a space for artistic reflection, production and exchange.
The artist-in-residence programme at the Casa Alberto Heredia will start to be implemented in 2024.
Casa Alberto Heredia is located in a historic building at Avenida Caseros, just eight blocks from the Museo Moderno. The flat has been restored thanks to the generous efforts and contributions of the museum’s outstanding patrons and the Fundación Azcuy in particular, an exceptional ally of the Museo Moderno. Fundación Azcuy oversaw the architectural renovations and refurbishments of the property while the Joanne Cattarossi Estudio, a philanthropic patron of the Museo Moderno, designed and executed the interior spaces. The refurbishments and retrofitting of the Casa Alberto Heredia also benefited from the generous support of the Asociación Amigos del Museo de Arte Moderno.
The Casa Alberto Heredia programme offers national and foreign artists, art professionals in training and specialists time and space for research, production and exchange. The inauguration of the space marks the beginning of a new line of programming and work for the Museo Moderno. It will promote residencies whose processes enter into broad dialogue with its exhibitions and programmes of public activities, with its collections and its team of professionals.
Casa Alberto Heredia can accommodate two professionals at a time. There are two bedrooms with private bathrooms, a kitchen-dining room, a shared workspace and a spacious common area.
The Casa Alberto Heredia programme will launch in 2024 and will offer:
1) Production and research residencies for artists from different regions of the country;
2) Professional training and exchange residencies for visual art professionals from different regions of the country;
3) Residencies for artists and researchers invited to develop community-targeted projects;
4) Research residencies for curators from other regions of the country.
Casa Alberto Heredia will also host an exchange programme with international organisations interested in promoting intercultural dialogue, including visits by artists, curators and other experts in the visual arts and related fields.
The Casa Alberto Heredia programme is supported by Arthaus Contemporary Creation Centre.
The 157 m2 flat donated to the museum by Alberto Heredia is located in the City of Buenos Aires in a historic building prized for its architecture. It has two bedrooms with private bathrooms, a kitchen-dining room, a generous shared workspace and a spacious common area.
The renovation and inauguration of Casa Alberto Heredia, a 157m2 flat located in a historic building on Avenida Caseros, has been made possible thanks to the generosity and hard work of the patrons and private donors of the Museo Moderno. It is the first project of the Museo Moderno to be executed entirely through private funding. In this regard, the Museo Moderno would like to extend its thanks to the Fundación Azcuy for its incredible drive and invaluable collaboration. It is an exceptional ally of the Museo Moderno and undertook the renovations and refurbishments of the property. We would also like to thank the Joanne Cattarossi Estudio interior design studio, a philanthropic patron of the Museo Moderno. The studio designed and executed the interior spaces, including equipping the house to transform it into a temporary home for its future residents. This work was also supported by the Asociación Amigos del Museo de Arte Moderno and the companies El Camino, De Otro Tiempo, Rugit, Arredo, Boutique de Luz, Plavicon, Ferrum, Interieur Forma, Bed Time, Liliana and Blau.
The Joanne Cattarossi Estudio undertook the interior design, developing the project based on two main premises: first, it had to meet the functional needs of the residence in such a way as to facilitate a harmonious coexistence and exchange between residents while providing them with spaces suitable for their individual work; and second, it had to incorporate Argentinian design.
Possibilities for dialogues and exchanges have been facilitated through the spacious settings and dynamic distribution of the flat, which allows it to be adapted for a variety of uses and groups of different sizes. For example, the living room can be used for presentations of the work carried out by residents and other practical uses, while the workshop space – which can accommodate the needs of different artists, regardless of their disciplines – has sufficient room to receive a large audience to listen and participate in talks.
The two bedrooms, each with its own private bathroom, have spacious and comfortable layouts and ample work desks for residents. A neutral palette is used in the bedrooms and workshop while the large kitchen-dining room embraces the original green of the tiles, which has been enhanced by adding pops of blue in the furniture and red in the barstools to inject cheeriness into this inviting space. The new table at the centre of the room offers itself up for meetings and exchanges.
The second premise was to incorporate designs from Argentina into the flat, so that local and foreign residents can be surrounded by the best creations by the country’s designers. Casa Alberto Heredia is proud to have Eutopia chairs by Francisco Gómez Paz of Salta, as well as the Pipe sofa by Cristian Mohaded, from Catamarca, designed for Interieur Forma. There are other pieces of furniture from Cúmulo, lamps from Oblumo e Imdi, rugs from Rugit, and vases from the Tucuman artisans Blau. All have been designed and produced in Argentina. There are also custom pieces designed by the Joanne Cattarossi Estudio and executed by the renowned carpentry workshop El Camino, in the municipality of Tigre. The kitchen furniture was designed and manufactured by De Otro Tiempo and all of the lighting in the flat was provided by Boutique de Luz.
The interior design sought to respect the original essence of the home and find new functions for the original architecture by adapting it to new uses through contemporary language. With this in mind, the wall mouldings, windows and doors, floors, tiles and kitchen sink have all been preserved, as has the ironwork in the hallway which belonged to the house originally. The modern furniture presents a contrast with these period elements and creates a dialogue between past and present.
Throughout the history of the Museo Moderno, the artist Alberto Heredia maintained a relationship with the institution, actively participating in the museum’s programme beginning in 1960. That year, the museum also acquired the first works by Heredia that would become part of its collection. These consisted of highly expressive drawings and collages that tell of the outbursts of violence and the absurdity that permeate humanity and politics, recurring themes in the artist’s vast output. Between the late 1990s and 2000, after other works by Heredia entered the museum’s collection and following his participation in a number of groundbreaking exhibitions – and due to his close ties with Laura Buccellato, who directed the museum from 1997–2013 and curated a retrospective of the artist in 1998 – Heredia bequeathed 517 of his works to the museum, along with his archive and library, works from his personal collection, and his home. This endowment represents an important piece of heritage that the Museo Moderno is proud to care for and to exhibit. Under the stewardship of our current director, Victoria Noorthoorn, it has taken on a new dimension with the undertaking of the renovation of his home, to convert it into the first residence for artists hosted by a public museum in Argentina. The Casa Alberto Heredia was inaugurated during the administration of Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, Head of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, along with Felipe Miguel, Head of the Cabinet of Ministers and Enrique Avogadro, Minister of Culture.
Alberto Heredia (Buenos Aires, 1924-2000) is one of Argentina’s most important sculptors. His training began with a brief passage through the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Manuel Belgrano, after which he continued to develop his skills on his own. He participated in the Asociación Arte Concreto Invención [Concrete-Invention Art Association] and became friends with Ennio Iommi and Claudio Girola. In 1960, he received a grant from the Government of the Netherlands which permitted him to travel to Europe; he returned to Argentina in 1963. His most important exhibitions include: Cajas de Camembert [Camembert Cartons] (Galería Lirolay, Buenos Aires, 1963) and Los monstruos [The Monsters] (Galería de Arte Nuevo, Buenos Aires, 1966). He participated in several group shows in Rio de Janeiro, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Madrid and Rome. In 1984, the first retrospective of the artist was held in 1984 at the Fundación San Telmo. Towards the end of the 1990s, thanks to his close ties with Laura Buccellato, curator of the major retrospective of the artist that was held in 1998, Heredia decided to bequeath 517 of his works to the museum, along with his archive and library, works from his personal collection and his home. This bequest represents a piece of heritage that the Museo Moderno is proud to care for and to display on a regular basis, in an act of revitalisation that, without losing the playful character of its creation, carries on Heredia’s own motto: “to distance the viewer from the superficiality that dominates the world”. In 2023, under the direction of Victoria Noorthoorn, we are celebrating the opening of the first residence for artists hosted by a public museum in Argentina, in what was once his home and studio. Thus the Museo Moderno is pleased to be able to extend a similar gesture of generosity to that which it received from Alberto Heredia, by making his bequest available to new generations of artists.
