A collaboration with Argentine pop artist Marta Minujín to reconfigure 'La Menesunda' to create an immersive and accessible experience for 21st century audiences.

Created by Minujín and Rubén Santantonín at the Center of Visual Arts of the Instituto Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires in 1965, La Menesunda (Mayhem) was one of the first large-scale environments in global art history.

A radical, immersive experience, it not only anticipated the current significance of mass media and popular culture, but also participatory practices that came to prominence in the 1990s and the wave of immersive installations that encourage audiences to turn from passive spectator into an active participant. The environment, which in the words of the artist “intensified existence”, was fundamental in generating a radical crossover between art and popular culture.

In 2020 AOC were appointed by Tate Liverpool to collaborate with Marta Minujín to reconfigure La Menesunda. The challenge was to maintain the experiential intensity of the original whilst providing an accessible environment for diverse audiences.

La Menesunda is a labyrinthine environment that takes the audience through eleven imaginative rooms in Buenos Aires. Visitors' experiences include a neon-lit street, a bedroom with a couple sitting in bed, a room that smells of fried chicken, a beauty salon inside a giant woman's head where they can have make-up applied, a swamp, a cold fridge, a forest of forms and a mirrored confetti room where their presence activates a breeze. The word “menesunda” originates from local slang, describing a feeling of restlessness, confusion and mayhem.

The recreation of this colossal installation is the result of years of research at the Museo Moderno in Buenos Aires. The immersive work will be touring major European galleries including Copenhagen Contemporary, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; KANAL – Centre Pompidou, Brussels; and Tate Liverpool, UK.

Open competition. First Prize. Realised.