The Museu del Disseny de Barcelona has a new director. The center will begin a new stage from next February 1st by the cultural researcher Jose Luis de Vicente, who will take over from Pilar Vélez, who is leaving her position due to retirement. Thus, the contest initiated last May to fill the position, in which the applicants had to present a project that included a master plan for the museum, was resolved.
De Vicente's commitment is based on promoting new formats and platforms that provide a plus of innovation and experimentation. Of course, being "coherent with the present and assuming challenges for the future", as he assured at a press conference held at the Palau de la Virreina in the Catalan capital.
The founder and artistic director of Sónar D for almost ten years, who is also part of the artistic direction of LlumBCN, has promised to make the museum a "reference, dissemination and revitalization center for all forms of design and architecture", as well as a place of "international promotion and projection". For this, he has remarked, it is important to be in continuous contact with the collections because, "they only make sense if they constantly look at themselves."
The selection process included a commission made up of the critic and professor of Art History Miquel Molins, the museologist Marta Montmany, the editor Ramon Prat, the cultural researcher Jaron Rowan, the lighting designer and set designer Maria Güell and the architect and communicator Nuria Moliner.
