Faena Arts Center

Faena Art Center is the cultural center of the Faena District Buenos Aires, a residential and cultural community in the Puerto Madero waterfront in Buenos Aires developed by the Faena Group and opened in September 2011. Alan Faena founded the center. Ximena Caminos is the Executive Director.History of the Building & RenovationFaena Art Center was built out of one of Argentina’s first big flour mills. In what used to be the mill’s old machine room, the main exhibition space has been rebuilt to retain the original details from the 1900s. The spacious, light-filled center, which is over 4,000 m2, is housed by soaring ceilings, semicircular arches, bay windows and other hallmarks of turn-of-the-century industrial architecture.Past ExhibitionsFaena Art Center presents works by international artists in order to create a dialogue with the Argentinean scene, as well as offering local artists the chance to debut. The inaugural exhibition featured a monumental installation by Brazilian contemporary artist Ernesto Neto, curated by the Tate Modern’s Jessica Morgan. In May 2012, the Cuban duo Los Carpinteros debuted their first solo in Buenos Aires. In November 2012, German artist Franz Ackermann exhibited the results of his voyages around Buenos Aires with the largest mural of his career, also his first show in Buenos Aires.Faena Prize for the ArtsFaena Prize for the Arts is one of the largest art prizes in Latin America and is led by Ximena Caminos. It aims to foster artistic experimentation, encourage crossover between disciplines, and promote new explorations of the links between art, technology, and design. The competition is open to all artists all over the world, and it is also open to work in different media (installations, performances, paintings, sculptures, photographs, works that include design and architecture, film or video pieces, or combination of the aforementioned disciplines) to create a project that responds or occupies the center’s space in a significant way.