The transfer of powers is underway, but it is a calm and choreographed succession. Nothing to do with the turbulence of the television series where family tensions and divisions are on the surface and nerves are twisted, chewed and spit out.
The main headquarters of the Alzueta gallery has a somewhat theatrical, somewhat Dantesque entrance: you have to go down some stairs and, once you cross the armored door, a tunnel appears that you have to cross carefully so as not to bump into all the paintings and objects lined up side by side.
At the end of the tunnel the light is seen and a new stage is glimpsed for this art center that began two decades ago when its founder, Miquel Alzueta, decided to jump from the springboard of the world of publishing and books to the pool of galleries without know if there was much or little water.
Years later, and with five exhibition spaces (both in Barcelona, a mansion in Casavells, one in Madrid and another in Tetbury, near London, with some partners), Alzueta is drawing up his long goodbye and granting full powers to his daughter Júlia , which is already preparing the definitive international expansion of the gallery. First stop: Paris.
There is a festive atmosphere in the gallery on the day of Magazine's visit, it is not the date on the calendar for the "coronation" of the daughter, but there is a cake and a huge tray full of red berries. It's her 33rd birthday. It's a sign...
"The transition will be gradual, we don't want to make a radical change from one day to the next," says Júlia Alzueta, who speaks less than her father, but puts the dots on the i's. “We had to grow. My initial gallery project was very personal, individual and outsider. I liked the furniture, the design and we had to focus on art, but with an international vocation”, says Miquel.
Did you get dizzy at first? “I did not have it when I opened the gallery, what I had was unconsciousness. When I started the project it was out of pure unconsciousness, almost a dream. I was a publisher, but I knew artists, I started buying to sell and in a very natural way we arrived here at this space that was also transformed unconsciously, without realizing it. It seemed to me that the way of art was like having two lives, that of books and that of art”.
Is the succession dizzying? “No, but I do feel the adrenaline. We are in the best moment of the gallery, it is as if we had the keys to many cities and we only have to decide which step to take and where. We have a very solid base with well-known artists, with collectors from all over the world who follow us and support us. The step is to open in another country and we are very excited because it will be the most different step to date”.
The first changes of this generational transfer are already visible in the space of the Palau de Casavells, which was a summer gallery “and now it will be a more museum space, the entire palace dedicated to a single author for three months. We have to take advantage of the space to show some art in a space that breathes. Now we have exhibited the work of James Rielly in an exhibition that comes from the CAC in Malaga”, says Júlia.
“The idea for the future of the gallery –says the heiress- is to continue growing, for the stool to have many legs. We have opened in Madrid, which also consolidates us, and opening abroad, one option is Paris, which is perhaps the most feasible. In London we have thought a lot, but with Brexit everything has become very complicated. However, we have a partner and gallery there, BR, which we share in Tetbury in the Cotswolds. Perhaps in Barcelona there is not enough inertia…”, says the daughter.
“The only way we have to survive and advance is to advance, like riding a bicycle and not stopping, because you can fall. We want to consolidate our artists and have younger ones”, asserts the father. Miquel Alzueta believes that now is the time for the transfer of powers.
“There comes a time -he reflects- when it is not that you stop contributing, but you stop having the connection with total reality. You have to be aware that giving power to younger people has to be when they are really young and more so in the artistic world where currents overlap for almost weeks.”
The Alzuetas are a peculiar father and daughter in the sense that their relationship has been cemented more in the gallery than at home. “There are many things in which we do not agree at all, but in art we do, and that is very good because when we go to a fair, for example, we usually like the same things”.
It is a good starting point… and entry point. It is the beginning of the end of a story. The end of the beginning. The quiet change within a dynasty.
