This morning the Institut del Teatre hosted the presentation of the manifesto “We claim the Museu de les Arts Escèniques”, with the presence of 140 professionals from the sector. Before the event began, 350 people had already signed the manifesto, which was presented by the theater director Àlex Ollé and the dancers Sol Picó and Cesc Gelabert.
The professionals, as Ollé has specified, belong to the world of theatre, dance, circus, opera, puppets, performance, magic... The manifesto calls for the new Museu de les Arts Escèniques (MAE) to be definitively resolved ), with a suitable location in the city of Barcelona, a public headquarters.
The manifesto, which Gelabert has read, calls for the public headquarters to "explain the past, present and future of the performing arts", with all the human and technical resources to make it possible. The text highlights the "ephemeral nature of performing arts", and for this reason a space is needed that brings together all the material that is now kept at the Institut del Teatre, in conditions that are not optimal and do not allow for proper exhibition.
Among this material there are "sketches, models, texts, photographs, films, videos, posters, programs, memories, dresses, accessories, puppets, etc." Right now, the museum's reserve houses the personal collections of some sixty artists and dance and theater companies (Comediants, La Fura dels Baus, Rosa Novell, Fabià Puigserver...), more than a million photographs, 10,000 posters, 200,000 hand programs, more than 1,000 dresses, 650 puppets, 500 theaters, 17,000 stage sketches or costumes, as well as other press documents, books and audiovisuals.
From the collection of manuscripts, those of the Golden Age playwrights Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Francisco Rojas Zorrilla and Lope de Vega stand out, as well as dramatic texts by Catalan authors such as Àngel Guimerà, Joan Brossa or Josep M. Folch i Torres.
Among the oldest clothing collections are those of the actor Enric Borràs or the dancer Tórtola Valencia, but also noteworthy are the opera dresses of Victoria de los Ángeles and Montserrat Caballé, as well as pieces by Margarida Xirgu and Mary Santpere.
The manifesto calls for a “living, active museum, with the capacity to capture the infinite variety and mobility of art through its history, generated with each passing day, and oriented in this continuous search for the future that is artistic research”.
Gelabert has added some "improvised ideas", such as that it is a "first step, so that it can be seen that the profession is behind it", that it has to be open to all families of the performing arts and has also remarked that in no At the moment they imagine a museum that only shows the permanent collection, but rather there are spaces for interaction, “more like an agora”.
Picó has reflected on the importance of equipment like this, which would have been very good for her when she studied: "To enrich myself and to know the referents and the creators" and has declared that it has to serve to "understand the present and build the future". .
The director of the Institut del Teatre, Sílvia Ferrando, added: "We live in a country of silence and we have to vindicate this memory." The director of the MAE, Anna Valls, recalled that, apart from the Barcelona Provincial Council, to which the Institute belongs, they seek the collaboration of the City Council and the Generalitat, "who are the ones who have the buildings".
The promoters consider that the new museum has to be located in Barcelona and needs a minimum of 5,000 m2, apart from reserves, which can be stored outside the city. “Digitization does not stop, this year we are digitizing thousands of press articles”, explained Valls.
Among the buildings that have been weighed, is the old cannon foundry at the end of the Rambla, the Arnau del Paral·lel theater or the Casa de la Premsa, in Montjuïc, but they have already been ruled out.
Valls has also revealed that they have already requested more warehouse space, because, for example, they cannot advance in the talks with Dagoll Dagom.
Catalan version, here
