New MAP collection

In December it will be 70 years since the inauguration of MAPA. Then it was located in the Castillo Hidalgo on Cerro San Cristóbal and its director was Tomás Lago, the man who formed it and who today is part of the name of the institution that he headed for more than 20 years: the Tomás Lago Museum of American Popular Art (MAPA).

This museum of the University of Chile houses more than 6,000 heritage pieces and its almost 70 years do not prevent it from continuing to move, linking with artisans and sister institutions. To prove it, Nuevo Acervo del MAPA was inaugurated, an exhibition that exhibits the most recent acquisitions and donations of popular art from Chile and other Latin American countries.

The exhibition includes old works, but mainly new creations, to show in this way the popular art that is being made today, exposing the current imaginaries of artisans and indigenous communities.

The new exhibition includes a donation from the important Chilean engraver Eduardo Vilches, who gave MAPA his collection of garlands and pennants created by Teófila Hinojosa in Concepción. Until her death in 1963, the artisan and fruit seller carried out works on tissue paper that Vilches had collected since the 1950s. An art that dates back in Chile to the custom of decorating inns and ramadas in September to celebrate the newborn republic.

The founder of the Museo del Barro de Paraguay donated wooden carved animals that are also part of this exhibition, and that are creations of the Aché-Guayaki community that follow the Guaraní tradition. Another donation that will be exhibited is that of objects made of horsehair and poplar root, typical creations of Rari and Panimavida in the VII region.

Nury González, director of MAPA since 2009, also donated indigenous clothing and carved birds. The clothing is from the Guna Yala region, in Panama, and includes molas (colorful fabrics with geometric motifs) and chaquiras (jewelry with colored beads). The carved birds are polychrome and made of poplar wood by the hands of Chilean artisan Carlos Yévenez, from Gorbea, who has been dedicated to creating these birds for more than 25 years.

Basketry made by indigenous communities of Panama will also be exhibited, from the chunga palm dyed with natural pigments. Feather art, ceramics and religious imagery from Paraguay will be shown. There will also be pieces from Cuba. And Chile will also be present with miniatures from Pomaire, ceramics from Talagante, basketry from Chiloé and Mapuche art.

The exhibition is the tenth that MAPA opens in its room at GAM, where it arrived in 2011 after a three-year agreement that was just renewed for another three years. The agreement stipulates that three annual exhibitions will be held under the curatorship of its director, Nury González.