Current Exhibition

Tempus Meum

Suspended figures by Joaquín Restrepo in the MAC's dome, Tempus Meum
View of the installation in the MAC's dome. Photo: MAC

Tempus Meum · Joaquín Restrepo · Curator: Ana María Escallón

September 12 – November 7, 2026

Art is time without time. An image may begin with a drawing, remain in storage for years, and when the artist returns to it, it is no longer the same. The artist, who started out with an idea and returns to it only to encounter it again, finds another meaning. Nothing remains as it was. The work holds the past, present, and future within the same form.

Tempus Meum, my time, will be presented at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Bogotá to make the duration of creation visible. Time ascends, descends, and returns to the same place. The museum becomes a great sculpture, and, throughout the days of the exhibition, each return brings with it the difference of another time held in memory.

“Nothing that has given color to existence has yet had its story,” writes Nietzsche in The Gay Science. Love, lust, envy, piety, cruelty. Fear is there. Loss is there as well. Time to remember is the continuous time of one´s own identity.

The works of Joaquin Restrepo carry an expressive force in the human figure: a body leaning back may hold an ancient defeat; an embrace and a kiss preserve the impulse to reach out toward another being. A gesture may suggest a triptych, or a step forward. Everything points toward the connection between the individual and their world through the subject-object dialectic. The first encounters the second as it is articulated through language, through the gaze of others, and through society.

Gallery view, Tempus Meum. Photo: MAC

Each wall has its own color: its boundaries are drawn, but so is shared knowledge. The symbolic universe and the worldview shaped by society lay out and articulate the individual´s connection to their world. This color returns to some sculptures. Lines that run across the walls bring the cartographies of memory to life. Color becomes a spatial reference that guides the gaze, connects the works, and allows a geography of presences and absences to emerge.

Gallery view, Tempus Meum. Photo: MAC

At the center, bodies appear; bent, crouching, exhausted. Their hands remain behind their backs. Beneath their extremities, a crack opens, a place where the body can be passed through. The lines of color cross the void and the arms and legs stretch out, while preserving the memory of some borders. The enclosure remains in its form and becomes a path, a tension, an embrace, a possibility of passage that runs through the place.

The Ouroboros accompanies this experience. The serpent turns back upon itself; so does the visitor. Drawing, painting, digital image, and resin belong to these slow times in which form is never fixed: it changes and returns, change and start again.

Piece outside the MAC. Photo: MAC

Tempus Meum, my time, brings stories together. Stories of creation, of those inherited, of those lost, and of those recovered.

And we return to the void.
It was in the same place.
Time has already passed.

Artist & Curator Testimonials

Daniel Guana

2017 THESIS ARTIST, UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE COLOMBIA

I am very grateful to the Museum because it has opened doors for me to grow as an emerging artist — from the opportunity to exhibit and receive the scholarship for the residency in Korea, to a wealth of enriching and rewarding experiences that have helped me professionally.

Bogota Colombia

Sonia Rojas López

2016 THESIS ARTIST

It has been an interesting experience to have been part of the 2016 thesis project; the museum has supported me as an emerging artist  and given me the confidence to expand my work into other fields, motivating me to achieve my goals.

Bogota Colombia

Cindy Marcel Cifuentes

UNIMINUTO INTERN STUDENT

Doing my internship at the Museum has served as the foundation for my thesis, which focuses on designing artistic pedagogical experiences for the inclusion of people with hearing impairments.

Bogota Colombia

Lady Pinilla

administrative assistant

 

 

It has been very important and rewarding to work with pride for art and culture.
I am happy to celebrate and be part of these 45 years of the MAC.

 

 

Bogota Colombia

Teresa Currea

2008 THESIS ARTIST

My relationship with the museum began when I presented my degree thesis; I was chosen as the best thesis project in 2008. The door that opened with this exhibition gave me the chance to steer my career toward new processes and build relationships with other artists. A door that opens both professionally and in terms of work opportunities.

Bogota Colombia