During the Fall of last year, the Museum of Contemporary Art invited 20 activists, artists, writers and curators to meet and discuss the role art plays during times of uncertainty and possibility.
"It so happened that we started the conversation two days after the presidential election, where I feel many in the cultural industry felt very dislocated, not knowing what the future would bring in the with the Trump administration," said Pablo Helguera, renowned Mexican artist.
Helguera helped curate the MCA's newest exhibit called "Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera," which was inspired by the results of that conversation last year.
"Once we had those conversations, we came back to look at the collection here the museum, to see what pieces in the museum's holdings can speak best to those concerns," Helguera said.
The exhibit was born out of Helguera's own love for the process of developing exhibitions and his experience as both a curator and an artist. He even worked at the MCA for a time.
The MCA's newest exhibit "Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera" invited 20 writers, activists and creatives to the museum for a conversation about the power of art during times of uncertainty. It's on display through July 5, 2026.Carolina Garibay
"I worked with many curators over the course of my career, and what I enjoyed the most was the conversation," he said. "The idea that you will come into a room trying to think about an exhibition, but not knowing where it might lead to, starting with concerns, problems, questions and then going from there to what might be a show."
The MCA exhibit, he said, puts these conversations on display, both visually and sonically. It's made up of three floors of the MCA's stairwell galleries and is organized by various themes: confronting trauma, resistance, complicity and the power of individuals and movements during times of uncertainty.
You'll also be able to hear audio snippets of the individuals' conversations. Helguera said the conversations and the artwork provide context for each other.
"Art is a conversation," he said. "The discomfort that we find with visitors with contemporary art is, 'I don't understand. It's elitist. It's for someone else.' But it is like opening a book in the middle of it and not understanding what's happening."
"Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera" is a community-informed exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art. It runs through July 5, 2026.Carolina Garibay
He said he hopes the pairing of the two mediums bridges that gap and provides more opportunities for discussion about how art can be used as a tool during times of unrest and uncertainty.
"It is important to consider that it is a really interesting conversation, and we as artists, we make work that also dialogues with the past artists and furthers the conversation," he said. "This was an exercise to exemplify that but with actual verbal conversation."
Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera is open now through July 5, 2026.
