Museo en los Cerros
Argentine photography in the Huichaira Gorge
We took the gravel road, a detour from Route 9, near the Pucará de Tilcara, advancing along the Huichaira River with the illusion of getting to know the home of Argentine photography.
We had taken the same path some time before, when fortune wanted to give us a chance encounter with the great photographer Ariel Pascuali, who settled with his family in the area. That day the museum was already closed because it has a limited schedule for visits. By chance passing by, Ariel did not hesitate to stop and offer to help us. His gesture of courtesy led to a nice chat where the mutual interest in art and life itself was shared. Before leaving, he urged us to come back and visit it.
And so it was that, quite some time later, we returned to the MEC.
It was the Argentine photographer Lucio Boschi who decided to create this mecca of photography surrounded by hills.
Its architecture blends in with the environment. Designed by the Tucuman architect César Rodríguez Marquina, it stands out for its volumes and native materials such as adobe, stone and cane.
Its interior houses an exhibition of exceptionally manufactured Argentine photography.
In addition, a second room displays temporary exhibits. The adjoining room proposes a sound experimentation with works by the legendary musician and rural teacher from Jujuy Ricardo Vilca. It also has a library specialized in photography.
Right in the middle of the hills, another small adobe cube invites you to indulge in silence, contemplating photographs of the skies: this is the exhibition El Tiempo Presente by Sebastián Szyd.
The space, his proposal, the initiative is huge and we celebrate it.
But when we managed to make the visit, a fuel shortage problem affecting the country forced us to arrive very near the closing time; and as we could not fail to notice the haste of the staff to leave, we made a tour without fully honoring the invitation that the museum tends to expose, that of experiencing the beauty of inside and outside, to perceive it, reflexively, to rejoice the spirit. Therefore, anxious we left knowing that a new visit deserves the Museo en los Cerros, perhaps accompanied again with providence in our favor, so as to realize it guided by our new friend Ariel and the shared desire to discover the magnificence of art in the Quebrada de Huichaira.