MUSEO INTERNACIONAL DEL BAROCO

It's impossible not to mention this off-center museum, designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito (2013 Pritzker Prize). It claims to be the international temple of Baroque art, in all its expressions, but it was as much its cost as its true cultural or artistic interest that caused debate when it opened in 2014: it is seen as a political whim of state and federal administrations. In fact, a number of works were removed from downtown museums or even the cathedral to take their place in this very contemporary-style building, when these museums installed in historic buildings, anchored in their neighborhoods, could really use a financial boost... Yet, it must be said that the result is superb for both the architecture and the museography. The exhibits are splendid, and the whole course is very didactic and entertaining. Because it is here a journey not obvious that the museum proposes: the journey to the heart of the baroque style, a multidisciplinary trend (painting, music, architecture, sculpture, literature, theater, dance ...) that spread throughout the world between the late sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. The term itself derives from the Portuguese word "barrôco", which designates pearls with capricious contours... It is thus to a rupture of forms and conventions that the baroque style echoes, he who historically fits between the Renaissance (perspective and light) and the Neoclassical (predominance of the lines and the form, admiration for the classics). The first room echoes the beginnings of this style in European cities, which were consolidated at the end of the 16th century as the seat of highly centralized powers with a certain taste for architectural, decorative or ceremonial ostentation. A beautiful world map shows the global centers of style as European colonization spread to the four corners of the globe. There is also an interactive model of the center of Puebla, with video animations that have nothing to envy to contemporary art. The set of seven thematic rooms, dedicated to expressions of style (sculpture, painting, music ...) has indeed the great advantage of coupling magnificent works (paintings, sculptures, musical instruments, costumes, decorative objects and furniture ...) with interactive devices that can literally play with the works.