The Mec (Museum in the hills) is much more than a museum, it is a community space created to promote and arouse concerns with the local people. The idea - crazy idea, the sane ones will say - belongs to a renowned photographer, the Argentine Lucio Boschi (1966) whose works are part of numerous public and private collections in the United States and Europe. After traveling through the most diverse geographies documenting the presence of its peoples, since 1998 he focused his creativity in the country and captivated by the magic of the northwest, he launched into a chimera: to build a museum in the hills, the Mec, since 2012 a wonderful actually, located a few kilometers from Tilcara, in the Quebrada de Huichaira.
Thinking aloud, this is how the alma mater of the Mec, Lucio Boschi himself understands it: “A photography museum, in the middle of the mountain, among the original peoples, a few years ago would have been foolish. Today it may continue to be, however, something changed, now we all have a camera in hand and the illusion intact ”.
The building, in frank empathy with the landscape, was designed by the Tucuman architect César Rodríguez Marquina, with three exhibition rooms. Let us let a visitor tell us about it, who visited it days ago and in addition to giving us his emotions, he gave us an expressive repertoire of images. To imagine a next visit.
The Mec, a photography museum, also exhibits other arts. Photography: Ignacio Liprandi.
A place that awakens emotions
By Ignacio Liprandi
On Friday, October 8, by the hand of Guadalupe Miles, an artist who lives a few kilometers away, we were fortunate to visit the MEC, Museum in the Hills, in Huichaira, a town near Tilcara, Quebrada de Humahuaca, Jujuy province. This particular museum, between hills and native peoples, the result of dreams and the efforts of photographer Lucio Boschi, and dedicated to photography, has a permanent collection, a library dedicated to that discipline, and some rooms that are used for temporary exhibitions.
At that time he exhibited the aforementioned Guadalupe, with some photographs and a sculptural object made in clay that give an account of his innumerable stays with the wichis, and Sebastián Szyd, with works that refer to the immateriality of the artistic fact, after multiple trips to India.
The permanent collection, on the other hand, was assembled from the donation of some thirty artists, and illustrates the panorama of photography in our country.
The architecture of the MEC deserves a separate paragraph: resorting to adobe, stone, and cane, that is to say, the materials typical of the area, the architect César Rodríguez Marquina, reflected in his design volumes very appropriate to the use of the building, which are inserted very naturally in the majestic surrounding landscape.