With its arrival in Ciudad del Río, the Museum took on several challenges: repositioning itself, consolidating its position, and growing. In 2009, an international call for architectural proposals was launched for its expansion at the rear of the Talleres Robledo building. The main objective was to expand the Museum’s cultural offerings in the city and enrich its programming with experimental spaces, workshop classrooms, a theater, and, of course, more galleries for the permanent exhibition of its collection.
While the MAMM was the last modern art museum founded in Colombia—following the Museum of Modern Art of Bogotá, the La Tertulia Museum of Modern Art in Cali, and the Museum of Modern Art of Barranquilla—it was the first to embrace the challenge of change, initiating a process of expansion and renovation that materialized in 2015.
The expansion project required rethinking and strengthening the public-private financial management model. The building’s construction took two years and cost approximately 24 billion pesos, funded by the Medellín Mayor’s Office, the Sofía Pérez de Soto Foundation, Grupo Bancolombia, Sura, the Fraternidad Medellín Foundation, Conconcreto Construction Company, Argos, private foundations, Luis Guillermo Restrepo y Compañía, and the Ministry of Culture. The Medellín Mayor’s Office contributed 50% of the total project cost.
The MAMM expansion was designed by 51-1 Arquitectos (comprised of Peruvians César Becerra, Fernando Puente Arnao, and Manuel de Rivero) in collaboration with Ctrl G Arquitectos (a firm led by Catalina Patiño and Viviana Peña). Their proposal was selected based on a concept inspired by the logic of informal construction on Medellín’s hillsides—a spontaneous building style that adapts to the terrain and results in terraces connected by staircases, without a defined pattern.
The jury highlighted the proposal’s potential in urban and architectural terms, the building’s volume, the possibility of pedestrian access and its relationship with the public space, the possibilities for natural lighting and environmental sustainability, its fulfillment of the Museum’s program needs, the quality of the design, and its interior functionality.
With the expansion, the MAMM reaches a total area of 9,910 m², which includes new exhibition halls, laboratories, a 256-seat theater, spaces for a café, bookstore and shops, areas for services and educational and cultural programs, and an expansion of the storage and parking areas. One of the most interesting aspects of the building is its integration with the public space, which seems to extend through the central staircases of the structure to the fourth floor, allowing visitors unrestricted access to the terraces.
On September 2, 2015, the Museum inaugurated its expansion building and significantly increased its local influence. It went from having 6,000 annual visitors at Carlos E. Restrepo to 45,000 visitors each year at Talleres Robledo. By 2017, thanks to the expansion, we reached 110,000 visitors.
The new building was inaugurated with the exhibition Débora Arango: Life in All Its Admirable Force, which brought together the categories of work present in the artist’s oeuvre: the nude, pleasure, religion, women and society, the political context, and portraiture. A space was also dedicated to the AGPA Portfolios: Pan-American Graphic Arts at the End of the 20th Century, comprised of a selection of 50 prints. Over the past few years, three different installations of this collection belonging to the Museum have been mounted. There was also a selection of works from the Arturo and Rebeca Rabinovich Salons, which were fundamental for young Colombian artists between 1981 and 2003.
As part of its expansion, the Museum unveiled one of the most modern laboratories dedicated to sound experimentation. Under the name Experimentation Room, Lab 3 focused on productions that incorporate sound through lectures, recitals, installations, listening sessions, workshops, and special projects. This space features acoustic insulation and high-tech equipment that enhances the visitors’ sonic experience.
With programming from Thursday to Sunday, the MAMM Theater became one of the most ambitious projects of the expansion. State-of-the-art technical equipment allows the audience to have an immersive experience in the theater. The film program includes Colombian premieres, classic films, thematic series, and contemporary global cinema. A space was also created for the circulation of avant-garde musical proposals, both local and international.
In the years following its expansion, the Museum enriched its educational and discursive programming, making valuable use of its new spaces and focusing on cultivating audiences through contemporary creative processes—a connection between the institution and its surroundings.
In recent years, the MAMM has developed a program that strives to include diverse audiences, constantly seeking methods of working and action that transcend the formal systems of the visual arts. In this new era, the Museum also embraced several challenges: the sustainability of its programming and the new building, the development of acquisition policies to expand and update its collection, the maintenance of excellence and quality in its programs, the continued diversity and coherence of its content, and its ongoing engagement with and response to culture in its expanded sphere.