Where is the book?

The opportunity to organize the exhibition Where do We Go From Here? Selections from La Colección Jumex, our first presentation in the United States, co-organized and hosted by the Bass Museum and the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) gives us great pleasure.

The opening on December 2, 2009, in Miami marked our institution’s fifth international presentation as we approach ten years of creating exhibitions drawn from the collection. This show continues the ongoing exhibition program outside of Mexico: Eden in Bogota (2003), The Uses of the Image in Buenos Aires (2004), This Peaceful War in Glasgow (2005), and Interstices in Vienna (2009).

Along with publishing catalogs and developing various artistic programs on site, Fundación Jumex has been present in other equally unique sites of outstanding cultural and artistic interest. Works from La Colección have been appreciated in particular and unique contexts as each exhibition reflects the vision of a specific curatorial team.

It is fundamental to La Colección Jumex to collect and promote contemporary art, as well as sharing its collection with other museums. This frequent exchange enriches the interpretations about the work of art and allows, over time, for it to be looked at through new analysis and theoretical insights. Paradoxically, it is only possible to approach the work of art once one has some distance from it. The work remains alive and full of significance owning to the renewed gaze of the spectator. Thus, a Warhol piece, for example, viewed in 1965 or 1980 will not be seen in the same way as it is in 2009.

I want to thank Silvia Karman Cubina, the staff at the Bass Museum, Raphaela Platow and her team at the Contemporary Arts Center, Victor Zamudio-Taylor and the entire team at Fundación/Colección Jumex for combining forces and putting together this beautiful and remarkable show.

This exhibition includes key areas of La Colección by emphasizing the relevance of aspects such as art’s gaze upon art itself, the interrelation of art and urban anthropology, and the value of text in art. I was deeply moved by seeing pieces that I know, that I have lived with, pieces that I am familiar with, presented in such thought provoking ways.

I believe art is a cultural index that can at any moment tell us who we are and where we are going. In this way, the question remains: Where Do We Go From Here?

Eugenio Lopez
President, Fundación/Colección Jumex