#museum 2018

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Museo (2018), dir. Alonso Ruizpalacios, 🎥 Damián García

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Museo (2018), dir. Alonso Ruizpalacios

- Last year, an American expedition discovered a Spanish galleon in international waters. It had been sunk by the British in 1804. Beautiful, beautiful vessel. And inside this ship, they found gold valued at an estimated 500 million dollars. That’s half a billion greens, right. So, saying that it was part of their national heritage, or whatever the fuck they called it, the Spanish government claimed the vessel as their property and sued the Americans, or the Yanks. Quite naturally, they said, “What the fuck are you talking about, we found this shit.” And then the government of Peru stuck their noses in. Wasn’t the gold which was being carried by the Spanish galleon originally Inca gold? In which case, shouldn’t it go back to Peru from where those conquistador bastards stole it in the first place?

- Yes, I think that’s obvious.

- Yes, but who had paid for the very expensive underwater expedition without which there wouldn’t be a galleon, or any Inca gold, or anything to argue about? It’s not so simple, is it?

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¿Para qué arruinar una buena historia diciendo la verdad?

Museo (2018), dir. Alonso Ruizpalacios / DoP Damián García

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Museo (2018, Alonso Ruizpalacios)

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Actor Gael García Bernal and Director Alonso Ruizpalacios photographed at TIFF 2018 for ‘Museo’ ( 📷 Maarten de Boer)

On one of themes tackled in their film: “A lot of what this discussion is what things belong in a museum, should they belong somewhere else or should they not be in the museum at all?” “Some people feel the need to own things, and there are interesting arguments on both sides,” said García Bernal. “I don't feel the need to own things, really. I'm not just not born like that. I just feel that everything should be displayed in some ways [where] everyone can see it. Everything should be everyone’s.” In his research for the film, director Ruizpalacios said he found even more contradictions in the art world. “I'd never paid attention to people collecting art,” he said. “Now, I see them everywhere, and I pay attention to who's collecting what. For example, we went to the library of an architect who designed the museum [in the movie]. In his house, they kept this library, and it's an amazing place — It's huge and it's full of art objects like from all over the world and gifts that were handed to him. How much of that stuff is in private collections that we can't even see?” (x)