Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/193668
LABOR OF LOVE Eugenio Lopez enriches Mexico City's contemporary art realm with an impressive new museum. Silvia Karman Cubiñá talks with him about the journey. A PHOTOGRAPHY BY DOUGLAS FRIEDMAN fter five years of planning, design and construction, the Museo Jumex opens to the public on November 17 in Mexico City. This private museum was conceived by Eugenio Lopez, who since the age of 29 has amassed the most important collection of international contemporary art in Latin America. A small, but important selection of Lopez's collection was on view for the first time in the U.S. at the Bass Museum of Art in 2010 (in a show titled "Where Do We Go From Here? Selections from La Colección Jumex"), so it was refreshing to visit Mexico and see these works again, now housed in their new permanent home, and to speak to their owner about negotiating design ideas, Mexico City's cultural heritage and the importance of natural light in museum spaces. First of all, congratulations on the opening of the new Museo Jumex. I know you've been working on this project for years and it's finally a reality. How did you come to the initial idea or realization of building a fullon museum in Mexico City? When I opened the Jumex Gallery at the juice factory in Ecatepec in 2001, I knew I wanted to build a museum in Mexico City. When the last floor of the Museo Jumex was built, upon viewing the site at this crucial stage, I felt it was a dream come true—an overwhelming state of mind, a sensation of plentitude. It took 12 years, but I've accomplished my goal and given a gift to my dear and beloved Mexico. As the other Jumex space became a destination for visitors—local, national and international—and, paradoxically, as our energy and resources invested in exhibitions and programs did not have the numbers we wanted (we had quality but not quantity), putting Museo Jumex in an accessible district of Mexico City became very important. For centuries, Mexico City has had a rich cultural life; it has been a magnet for international artists since the 1920s and from the 1990s on (for example, Francis Alÿs, Santiago Sierra, Melanie Smith and Thomas Glassford, all of whom are represented in depth in the collection). So it's great to be an essential part of the city's cultural landscape. Why did you select David Chipperfield to design your museum? His projects have integrity. The museums he has built or the additions he's designed always have crucial basic precepts in mind: the display of the art, the importance of natural light, the attention to the physical as well as cultural site and the flexibility of space. Natural light is of utmost impor- 86 CULTURED