Equally Present Temporalities: Craft and the Contemporary at the Museo del Barro, Paraguay

Abstract

Since the 1980s, it has been a priority for Paraguayan scholars to question and remap the canonical division of craft and art. Thinker and critic Ticio Escobar, alongside prominent historical figures in Paraguay such as Olga Blinder, Carlos Colombino and Osvaldo Salerno, have worked tirelessly to institutionalize indigenous art on par with what Escobar terms “erudite art” or the “critical-illustrated tradition.” The Museo del Barro in Asunción holds an extensive collection comprised of pre-Columbian art, indigenous art, popular art and contemporary art. From its inception, the museum has strived to challenge and reconfigure the dynamics that determine the categorization and valuation of art. The collection straddles art and craft, and it engages with non-mainstream systems through which popular art and indigenous art circulate, breaking with hegemonic cultural hierarchies. This article discusses the methodologies followed by the Museo del Barro to exhibit its collection and the ways in which it negotiates art’s conflictive relationship to capitalism and commerce. Providing an overview of the museum’s history and of several bodies of work in its collection, the article introduces the museum’s paradigm-shifting curatorial approach. The article introduces seminal texts by the museum’s founders and interrogates definitions of “the contemporary” which the museum’s activities systematically redefine today.