Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende

The Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende (MSSA) is a contemporary art museum in Santiago, Chile, named after Salvador Allende, president of Chile from 1970 to 1973. Founded in 1972 as an international solidarity project during Allende's socialist government, the museum has survived political upheaval, exile of its founders, and dispersal of its collection to become a significantmodern institution. It is administered by the Fundacion Arte y Solidaridad, with representatives from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage, and the Fundacion Salvador Allende. The museum stands as a unique case of art mobilized for political solidarity and later recovered as cultural patrimony.

The original collection comprised 650 artistic pieces received between 1972 and 1973, encompassing paintings, prints, sculptures, drawings, tapestries, and photographs. These works were donated by international artists in response to Allende's call for solidarity with the Chilean government. After the return to democracy, the museum has worked to reunite collections from both the original solidarity period and the resistance period, while also receiving new donations from artists such as Yoko Ono and Alfredo Jaar. The December 2023 acquisition of 18 works from MACVAC in Spain significantly augmented the holdings after three decades of separation.

The founding donations included contributions from prominent international artists of the era: Joan Miro, Roberto Matta, Lygia Clark, and Frank Stella all sent works during the 1972-1973 period. In the post-dictatorship period, the museum has received new donations from artists including Yoko Ono and Alfredo Jaar. The 2023 recovery of 18 works from the Museum of Contemporary Art of Villafames in Spain returned pieces that had been inaccessible for over 30 years.

The museum is housed in the Palacio Heiremans, constructed in 1925 for Belgian entrepreneur Amadeo Heiremans Vaerman. Located in the Republica neighborhood of Santiago, the building carries a dark history from the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, when it served as a detention center and listening station for the DINA (National Intelligence Directorate). The museum's occupation of this former site of state repression represents a transformation of space from instrument of political violence to venue for artistic and political memory.