The Fundació Miró recovers the 'tower of knowledge' that the artist devised with the architect Josep Lluís Sert when together they shaped the Montjuïc building. To this end, the archive of drawings and documentation, which had been underground since 1988, has been moved to the octagonal room on the first floor, turning it into a central space, open to public view, between the library and the auditorium. "It is the heart and soul of the foundation," says Teresa Montaner, responsible for an archive that keeps 18,000 documents (notebooks, sketches and preparatory drawings, correspondence, graphic work...) through which thought can be accessed intimate and the processes of the artist.
It was Montaner herself who, as soon as she set foot in the center, asked the current director Marko Daniel to restore it to its original place. The forced stoppage of the pandemic and the economic support of the Generalitat, allowed not only the transfer but also the cleaning, one by one, of all the documents to prevent the spread of pests and modernize the facilities, replacing the wooden drawers that he designed Sert - now spread over the studios of various artists - for blueprint filing cabinets and metal cabinets much more suitable for the conservation of paper. Next to the archive, a small exhibition space has been set up where small samples of materials from the collection will be periodically presented. The first, inaugurated yesterday, is entitled Open the file 1.
Daniel, who will renew for another three years in February, believes that from now on this new space will also be a new incentive to visit the Miró. In its new season it will feature the great exhibition Miró-Picasso, which will take place simultaneously at the Museu Picasso. It is an unprecedented look that will track the friendship between the two artists, their coincidences and divergences in the artistic field, and recognition of the legacies they left to the city.
The exhibition (starting on October 19) will be the great event of a year in which it will previously dedicate an exhibition designed to bring contemporary art closer to children and to make those who still have it lose their fear (Imaginary Friends, from on March 16), will celebrate the 25 years of activity of the collector and patron Hank Nefkens with a selection of video art from Asian countries (25 years of Hank Nefkens connecting people through art, starting on July 25).
La Miró, which according to Daniel is recovering an audience despite not providing specific figures (“we are at 45% more visits than expected and between 20% and 25% are local audiences”), will also recover the Joan Miró Award, now in collaboration with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. The Espai 13 cycle takes an international turn with a new program curated by the Madrid collective Yabi (Fixations per minute) and numerous pieces from the collection will be part of international exhibitions in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Hong Kong and Washington or the Zentrum Paul Klee from Bern. The latter is the result of the exchange that made possible the exhibition Paul Klee and the secrets of nature that can be visited until February 12.
