Commonwealth and Council welcomes Nuevo Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (NuMu) from Guatemala City to Los Angeles in the form of an exhibition within the space of our gallery walls. 

NuMu has spawned a mobile duplicate—a space moving through space—that extends the museum’s habitus to a series of places along a trajectory stretching from Guatemala City to Los Angeles, bringing its one-of-a-kind encounter to new landscapes and communities along the way. This fiberglass copy of NuMu is currently part of the group exhibition “A Universal History of Infamy” at the Los Angeles Museum of Art (LACMA) as part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA until February 19, 2018. NuMu’s second exhibition at LACMA will present the work of Regi- na José Galindo. Initially hatched by artists Jessica Kairé and Stefan Benchoam as a digital platform to showcase the richness of Guatemala City’s contemporary art scene, NuMu eventually materialized in 2012 as a repurposed egg-shaped kiosk. Since then, NuMu has hosted an ongoing series of exhibitions and events, becoming a living laboratory for all that an art space with a nimble programming focus can be, both within the local setting and as a global hub for collaboration, dialogue, and exchange. 

Addressing the historical absence of institutional support for the arts in Guatemala City, NuMu became the na- tion’s first and only museum dedicated exclusively to supporting, exhibiting, and documenting contemporary art. The museum’s mission is both focused and broad: an organization and an exhibition space, NuMu offers accessible programing for the local community and support for contemporary artists, thinkers, and cultural producers, while also welcoming international exchange. Measuring only 2.5 x 2 meters, this “micro museum” has led artists to think creatively about space, encouraging unique site-specific work within the capsular envi- ronment as well as the larger context of Guatemala City’s urban landscape. NuMu promotes opportunities for the development of imaginative, far-reaching collaborations beyond the usual limitations of any one place by fostering relationships with other arts organizations on the global scene, thus bringing people together to experi- ment, question, and share in the broadest conceivable sense.