Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín (MAMM)

We spent a wonderful morning at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín (MAMM) and I can recommend it to anyone interested in contemporary art. The museum itself reminded me of the new Whitney in New York, with  variety of  open terraces and outdoor spaces on serval different levels. This is a great place to learn about Colombia artists and to see work by contemporary painters, sculptors and print makers. In fact the museum caters to a wide range of disciples including video and installation art and even  audio or "sound art".

Before we even entered the museum we were happy to see wonderful street art on a long wall across from the main entrance, as you can see above and below.

As you can see below the museum is situated in a predominantly high-rise residential area and there's very little street life.

The building itself is interesting and here you can see several of the outdoor terraces I mentioned above. I love the concrete finish.

Everywhere we went in Medellin there were wonderful views and there were some great ones from the outdoor balconies at the museum. Like so many modern museums the building itself felt like an important part of the  the destination and the experience.

The decorative metal cladding below reminded me of the distinctive exterior of Jean Nouvel's Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. There are also some sculptural works filling the outdoor spaces.

The collection is electric and challenging with rotating exhibits including graphic design works, installations and selections from their permanent collections.

I enjoyed one room dedicated to the work of a Colombian graphic design collective...

There is a permanent  exhibit of the Medellin artist Débora Arango's  work some of which you can see below. Born in 1907, Arango's work looked at gender, religion and power. 

Labelled obscene by the church, her work was often provocative and the violence and corruption of the country and its governments was often depicted in her painting.

While we were there there was also a large exhibit of the contemporary artist Antonio Caro known for his subversion of branding and logos as in Colombia written in the  Coca Cola script at the top of the post. Caro's graphic design provides a pointed social and political commentary on contemporary Colombia, inequality, violence, corporate power and indigenous practices.

This exhibit was well installed on the ground floor  of the museum, in a renovated warehouse space which is perfect for displaying a range of contemporary art. Overall we very much enjoyed the visit. There were some excellent brochures in English and though it was the weekend the museum was very quiet. Highly recommended if you'd like to learn something about art in Medellin or contemporary Colombian artists.

Tip: There are two very nice small design museum shops and a bookstore as well as a cafe and restaurant on the site which are all worth checking out. I can't resist another piece of graffiti before I go!