Covid Art Museum: Instagram archive of pandemic creativity

The Covid Art Museum (CAM), founded by Spanish advertising professionals José Guerrero, Emma Calvo, and Irene Llorca, is the world's first art museum dedicated to creative projects born during the pandemic. Launched on Instagram on March 19, 2020—the first day of global lockdown—the platform has collected over 850 posts documenting life under coronavirus: curfews, social isolation, domestic confinement, easing restrictions, and hope for mass vaccination. The founders later created a website to give the museum a more institutional feel while curating works tied to performance art. The collection includes photomontages, stills of vaccinations, images of masked couples kissing, and scenes of elderly loneliness, often referencing Edward Hopper's palette. The project draws on Walter Benjamin's concept of aura, arguing that each work carries the 'aura of Covid'—a unique historical imprint. Andy Warhol's '15 minutes of fame' is invoked to suggest that these images, though fleeting, capture a shared global experience. The museum remains active, with submissions from users worldwide.