The Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba) has chosen the Mexican architect Frida Escobedo to design a long-planned expansion that will double its exhibition space. The project will be built beneath the adjacent Plaza Perú and is expected to open in late 2029 or early 2030. Eduardo Costantini, the museum’s founder and president, has also launched a $50m trust to help secure its long-term future.
Escobedo founded her studio in Mexico City in 2006 and opened an office in New York in 2022. She is designing the new Modern and contemporary art wing at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, which broke ground earlier this week, and is also working with Moreau Kusunoki on the renovation of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 2018, she became the youngest architect to design London’s Serpentine Pavilion.
The architect Frida Escobedo (left) and Malba founder Eduardo F. Costantini (right) Courtesy Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires
The Malba expansion will add new galleries for temporary exhibitions, an auditorium, multipurpose spaces, workshops and storage areas. It will also change how the museum connects with the city, linking the existing building to new spaces beneath the park. The project will include a sculpture garden, new entrances, a landscaped courtyard of approximately 600 sq. m for cultural activities and an open garden leading to a staircase on Salguero Street. The expansion will not reduce the size of Plaza Perú or limit public access to it.
“We approached three firms to evaluate possible designs, and we felt Frida’s was more suitable. One of the things we liked about her project was how it brings the two buildings together. Instead of having the original Malba building with an addition attached to it, the two are better integrated. And there is also a very good connection between the building, the plaza and the public,” Costantini tells The Art Newspaper.
An aerial rendering of the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires expansion designed by Frida Escobedo Courtesy Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires
For Escobedo, “the project is not simply about adding more space, but about transforming the museum as a whole, creating new connections between the programmes that have made Malba what it is today”. The new layout will allow film, literature and educational activities to take place at the same time, even outside regular museum hours.
The expansion is still in early design stages and Costantini expects construction to begin in 2027. He plans to seek funding from other donors but is prepared to cover the cost himself if he cannot raise the necessary funds. “We’ll see how it goes,” he says. “If not, I’ll provide the funding myself.”
A rendering of one of the new galleries in the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires expansion designed by Frida Escobedo Courtesy Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires
That financial dependence on its founder is precisely what the museum hopes to change with the Malba Art Trust, established with an initial $50m contribution from Costantini. He currently provides between $3m and $4m annually to cover the museum’s operating deficit. Asked how long the fund could support the institution, he estimates that “it could cover about 15 years of Malba”, adding: “That’s not much. Time goes by.”
“The goal is to grow the fund by bringing in other families, institutions and donors from Argentina and abroad, following the model of US endowments,” Costantini says.
The changes will also affect Malba’s governance: members of the Costantini family will become a minority on the board, making it easier for new members to join. The process also includes the donation of the Daros Latinamerica Collection, acquired in January of this year, which comprises 1,232 works by 117 artists, mostly dating from the 1950s to the 2010s. Costantini is also donating 17 works of Latin American Modern art from his personal collection, including Diego y yo (1949) by Frida Kahlo, Baile en Tehuantepec (1928) by Diego Rivera, Las distracciones de Dagoberto (1945) by Leonora Carrington, and paintings by Remedios Varo and Wifredo Lam.
A rendering of a passageway in the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires expansion designed by Frida Escobedo Courtesy Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires
Although several of these works were closely associated with the museum’s identity, they did not legally belong to the institution until now. “I have to start donating works, otherwise, when I die, they won’t go to Malba. It’s a matter of inheritance,” Costantini says. He adds that more works will follow, though not his entire collection. “I always think of Malba first, then my family,” he says.
As part of its ongoing 25th anniversary celebrations, Malba held a fundraising gala on Thursday evening (17 September) to support its expansion. The anniversary programme also includes Viva Frida(20 September-14 March 2027), an exhibition dedicated to Kahlo and featuring works from Casa Azul, and an international symposium featuring Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Glenn Lowry, Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, among others.
