Culture

Bogota’s Museum of Contemporary Art joins Google Art Project

by Hannah Mead

Bogota’s Museum of Contemporary Art has joined Google’s innovative online interactive gallery, Google Art Project.

“It was a challenge for us and now it is a great achievement to be included in Google Art Project. We are aware of the wide global audience that the project attracts and we are proud to be part of a collection of the best museums in Europe, the USA, Africa and Asia and to be the third in the country to join,” said museum director Gustavo Ortiz.

Google Art Project gives internet users virtual access to some of the world’s finest museums, including famous establishments such as the Musee D’Orsay in Paris, and New York’s Museum of Contemporary art. Anyone with an internet connection can view thousands of works of art from galleries and museums all over the world, meaning someone in Europe can log on and experience Colombia’s museums without even leaving the house.

Of the over 1000 works on display in Bogota’s Museum of Contemporary Art, 103 now form part of the online gallery. “Agresion a Vietnam”, a controversial political piece by Nirma Zarate and Diego Arango, is one of the highlights that now features on the website. The 1970 artwork depicts Vietnamese war-zones alongside three American dollar bills in different stages. The first dollar is completely in tact, the second slightly damaged and the last one is almost completely destroyed.

MORE: Medellin art exhibit revisits tumultuous ’70s (PHOTOS)

The museum was founded in 1966 and its collection consists of works from the second half of the twentieth century to the present by a range of Latin American, European and North American artists.

Bogota’s Gold and Botero museums are also featured on Google Art Project.

MORE: Bogota’s Botero museum, Bogota’s Gold Museum

Sources