Barda del Desierto, an open-air museum spread across seventy hectares and located southwest of Lake Pellegrini, between the towns of Contraalmirante Cordero and Cinco Saltos in Río Negro province, Argentina, concludes its third year of existence with global recognition. It was distinguished with the 2025 Outstanding Museum Practice Award (OMPA), granted by the International Committee for Museums and Modern Art Collections (CIMAM). The distinction was announced at the end of November during the 57th Annual CIMAM Conference held in Turin, Italy.
The guiding question for the project is direct and profound: "What can a museum on the edge?", referring to both the geographical edge of Patagonia and the limits of contemporary museum practices. Its director, María Eugenia Cordero, revealed to Diario de Río Negro that the award confirms that the museum engages in dialogue on equal terms with major international institutions. This year, 48 nominations were received from museums worldwide. The selection committee highlighted the ability of the winning projects to propose replicable, sustainable, and transformative models within the global museum ecosystem.
In 2025, a worldwide call was launched to recognize institutions experimenting with alternative museum models: proposals that preserve and transmit cultural heritage while simultaneously reforming the way stories are told, accompanying community processes, and engaging with the present. Emerging from the experience of the Barda del Desierto Residency, it defines itself as an ecomuseum of contemporary art not delimited by a building, but by a territorial, digital, and relational architecture. Its works are geolocated on the Patagonian plateau, and the route is structured through digitally mediated hikes with minimal physical intervention on the landscape. The jury, composed of representatives from museums, curators, and researchers from various countries, made its decision unanimously.
The international recognition grants the museum crucial visibility but also poses a central challenge: financing. The award recognizes innovative, context-sensitive, and sustainability-committed museum practices. Alongside the Río Negro museum, the Bergen Kjøtt Foundation from Bergen (Norway) and the Palestinian Museum from Birzeit (Palestine) were also distinguished. The immediate challenge is to start securing real funds to sustain and expand the projects, admitted its director. Meanwhile, the mBDD team will continue to deepen its work with local communities and schools, aiming to strengthen an identitary and affective relationship with the Patagonian steppe.
