the first Guillermo” in MAC

“TREGUAESCENA: the first Guillermo” exhibition at MAC

• Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of Chile, MAC, Quinta Normal headquarters, Matucana 464, Santiago.
  
• Opening: Saturday 20 July – 12:00 pm.
• Tuesday to Sunday – 11:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

“TREGUAESCENA: the first Guillermo” is an exhibition curated by Valentina San Juan, focusing on the work of Guillermo Núñez (1930 – 2024) as a theatrical designer, focusing on the costumes for two plays premiered in the 1960s. It is a proposal that not only focuses on a format that (in Chile) is not usually associated with this National Prize for Plastic Arts (2007), but also acts as a kind of prequel to the most recognizable Núñez, explaining the journey of this artist, and the origin of some of his aesthetic proposals.

The exhibition, as explained by the curator, is made up of “a selection of more than 30 pieces that are part of the interesting collection of costumes from the National Chilean Theatre TNCH. A kind of textile sculptures that dialogue with documentary images from the archive of the theatre scene at the Catholic University, and with drawings and an engraving by the artist, belonging to the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art.” For San Juan, the exhibition reveals “a transition between the sociopolitical context, the artist’s deep imagination, and the material that is expressed on stage, building a triad between material, document and memory.”

“TREGUAESCENA opens a new dimension with respect to what we knew about Guillermo Núñez. It is also a project that brings the collection of the Chilean National Theater into dialogue with the collection of the MAC and, in addition, converses with the exhibition GUILLERMO POP: COLORES DE UNA UTOPÍA (currently at MAC Quinta Normal). Of course, his death adds complexity to the readings of the exhibition, and I also highlight the interest in his expanded work, for his archives, for theatrical design, for his drawings. Bringing these together becomes another recognition of an artist who leaves a mark on our country and a former director of the MAC,” says Daniel Cruz, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of Chile.

Influences

The exhibition also reveals the trips that influenced the formation of Núñez’s artistic personality. Thus, TREGUAESCENA considers “a selection of study drawings and sketches, which were made during his stay at the Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design in Prague (UMPRUM/Prague) between 1958 and 1960. An imaginary that he later poured into the play El Perro del Hortelano (1962). Later, after a tour of the United States, Núñez was nourished by his aesthetics (particularly pop art and Disney imagery) and created the design for the play El evangelio según San Jaime (1969)”. Thus, for Valentina San Juan, the pieces “are configured as supports of an authorial language nourished by the transit from one continent to another, between Latin America, North America and Europe”.

In addition to the above, TREGUAESCENA also considers the installation “Textil sonoro: el armario que nos necesita” (Sound Textile: The Wardrobe We Are Missing), a research project co-created by María Teresa Lobos, Valentina San Juan and Andrea Ortiz. This is a project financed by the Artistic Creation Fund (CreArt) of the Vice-Rectorate for Research and Development of the University of Chile, 2021 call.

“The device problematizes and reflects on the loss of one of the costumes from the play El perro del hortelano, in 1968, during a tour of the ITUCH (Theater Institute of the University of Chile) in the United States. Through this immersive work, the path of its loss is reconstructed, an investigation is carried out in order to rethink what it was like, and to stage a new interpretation today, installing the voice of the actress who gives body to the recreated costume,” explains the curator.

“Pedro Núñez, Guillermo’s son, came to see GUILLERMO POP, as well as the exhibition – in progress – TREGUAESCENA and he was very grateful. During his visit he commented on specific things about pieces in which he participated in the making and assembly. It is an encounter with his own history, but also with a transversal history. These are readings that add to Guillermo’s legacy. But if the works are not exhibited, we have no way of discovering those winks that may be more intimate or familiar, but that make sense in the broader reading. Pedro had not seen all the material from TREGUAESCENA together. It is also about bringing together, the encounter of these invoices, these techniques and these mixed languages ​​that one sees and says “this is Guillermo”, concludes the director of the MAC.

This exhibition is a joint production between the MAC and the TNCH, both extension entities of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Chile.

Guillermo Nunez Henriquez (1930 – 2024)

In 1949 he entered the School of Theatre at the University of Chile and then the School of Fine Arts at the same university. During that time he also participated in the Group of Plastic Arts Students at the University of Chile. In 1953 he traveled to Paris. He studied at the Grand Chaumiére Academy and at the Arsenal and Opera Library. Later, he moved to Czechoslovakia where he studied at the UMPRUM, the High School of Applied Arts in Prague.

After a stay in New York between 1964 and 1965, he returned to the country, where he developed an exhibition of drawings created in the United States, which have been considered the beginning of his foray into Pop. In 1970 he became involved in Salvador Allende’s presidential campaign. In this context he organized exhibitions such as El pueblo tiene arte con Allende.

In 1971, he was appointed director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, a position he held for one year. In 1974 he was arrested by the dictatorship and in 1975, after being released, he mounted Exculturas-printuras, an exhibition that was closed almost immediately. Guillermo Núñez was arrested again and expelled from the country. He went into exile and lived in France for 12 years, developing various exhibitions and interventions in different European countries. In 1987 he returned permanently. In 2007 his career was recognized with the National Prize for Plastic Arts.

Valentina San Juan Standen (1986)

Valentina San Juan is a graduate in arts, theatre designer, curator and teacher. For 15 years she has carried out constant creative work in the performing arts as a set designer, lighting designer and costume designer. She is a professor in the Department of Theatre at the University of Chile, and Academic Coordinator of the diploma course in Stage Costume Design: Performance, Textiles and Technology. In addition, she is an associate researcher at the Research and Heritage Centre of the Chilean National Theatre.