With a fluorescent hanging garden, the Historic Room of the National Endowment for the Arts on Alsina Street has reopened

The vibrant yellow color of the installation that occupies the ground floor of Adolfo Alsina 673, a few meters from Diagonal Sur in Buenos Aires, announces a new phase for the space that contains it. Flowers: Hanging Gardenhuge inflatable sculpture Pablo Corochet It gives a very modern twist to the historic room of the National Endowment for the Arts, which has been closed for a decade.

The first prize-winning group of the 2024 Art Projects Competition, curated by Pedro Pedmar Rodríguez, has been selected to reopen this room dedicated to contemporary art, it has been confirmed. Tullio AndrusiPresident of the National Football Association at the opening.

“When we started the administration, there was a library operating in this place; it was quite dark and a little sad because of the neglect of time,” Androsi said during the opening ceremony. “That is why I am grateful for this long-awaited day for me, which through the National Endowment for the Arts I consider a living being, Contemporary artists once again have a space to display their workIn various specializations.”

The room has now been redesigned and improved It was opened on April 27, 1995headed by Amalia La Cruz de Fortabat. At the time, Clorindo Testa was director of architecture at the National Endowment for the Arts and donated the project he had developed with Francisco Bullrich during the 1990s.

In this room the original plan bearing Testa’s signature is displayed His vision of art and architecture is inscribed; For this reason the Board of Directors unanimously decided to name the room of the architect Clorindo Testa.

“With this reopening, we seek to transfer Clorindo’s commitment to Argentine art and artists into the present, underscoring our commitment to FNA’s past,” said Tulio Androsi, who participated in the conference. He highlighted the presence of Teresa Portajaray de TestaThe event was attended by Clorindo’s widow, her daughter Joaquina Testa, and the authorities of the Clorindo Testa Foundation.

Among the attendees was the Director of the National Museums, A. Maria Paula Zingoni; Director of Visual Arts Maria Silvia Corcuera Members of the Board of Directors of the National Endowment for the Arts; Art historian Maria Jose Herrera and critic Anna Maria Batistozzi, among other guests.

Since its foundation, the Symbolic Exhibition Hall has hosted nearly one hundred solo and group exhibitions. It has become a place of meeting, experimentation and vision For artists of different generations and languages, coming from all over the country, until its closure in 2015. At that time, Mario Podesta Libraryintended to house FNA publications, with a total of 27 thousand volumes digitized.

It was selected from 50 applications by a jury consisting of the researcher Anna InciarteDirector and curator specializing in design Fustavo Quiroga and Emmanuel Diaz Ruizdirector of the Franklin Rawson Museum in San Juan, the chosen project occupies the space in a unique and distinct way. Visitors walk through the installation with their bodies Flowers: Hanging Gardenin A sensory experience that adds to the exquisite appeal Which he presents through the window to passersby.

Born in Madrid and based in the Sierra Córdoba, artist, writer and cultural director Pedro Pedro Rodríguez met sculptor Pablo Corochet at a collective in Córdoba and their interests coincided.

“This work is a celebration of the beauty and fragility of life, a reminder that in an increasingly artificial world, Nature continues to be a source of inspiration “And astonishment,” says the curator, seeking to broaden the audience for contemporary art. “This hanging garden lacks scent, an absence that introduces the exhibition’s central thesis: the contemporary duality between organicism and its replacement with artifice.”

With the flower as a symbol of life, cycle and fleeting beauty, the installation is built using… It is a technique developed by Corochit Since he has embraced large sculptures, specifically through the support of FNA. “In 2006, I won a creativity grant that allowed me to develop large-scale projects. Returning to the Fund connects me to this part of my history and is very exciting.”

After its closure in 2015 An illuminated stained glass window imagined by Clorindo Testa for this spacewith its distinctive staircase and cozy living space, was hidden behind vinyl that obscured the entire experience.

“You may have heard me say that the National Endowment for the Arts is a living organism that beats to the rhythm of cultural excellence,” Androsi concluded. “I hope this is the beginning of this space shining again.”

Flowers: Hanging Garden It can be visited until Friday, February 20, 2026, from Monday to Friday, from 10 am to 4 pm, at Adolfo Alsina 673 (CABA), with free admission.