"If until now we were going in third gear, now we are going in fifth gear and soon we will have skidding problems. Everything is speeding up a lot," explains Pepe Serra graphically, regarding the project for the new National Museum of Art of Catalonia (MNAC) that will culminate in 2029 with its expansion into the Victoria Eugenia Pavilion. But beyond that future that is not so distant and will be a key piece of the great urbanization of Montjuïc, the present of the museum is increasingly closer to the idea it had. when he took office in 2012. “After so many years, results are beginning to be seen and this year's program I will not say is a culmination, because the change is permanent, but it does consolidate our work model,” he adds.
An exceptional season, due to the attractiveness and impact of exhibitions ranging from The Lost Mirror, an exhibition about Jews and converts in the Middle Ages that reveals how the image of otherness is constructed, to the Spanish landing of Suzanne Valadon, a fascinating artist. that she was linked to Miguel Utrillo (she lent her last name to the painter's son, Maurice, also a painter, who ended up overshadowing her) and that, despite her recognition in France, she remains unknown here. Two relevant exhibitions that have been co-produced with partners such as the Prado Museum, and the Pompidou of Metz and the Nantes Museum of Art, respectively, and which place it in the league of the great international museums.
Serra, who in one of his first public statements expressed in La Vanguardia the desire for life to enter the MNAC, proudly notes that today it is “a museum where artists live and work.” A historical museum where contemporary creators "enter and walk, they move naturally and are, in fact, the ones who help us the most to interpret the collections." Mostly women (Julia Coelho, Mar Aza, Raquel Friera, Núria Güell or Nadia Hadi), with the exception of the Chilean resident in Barcelona Fernando Prats, who will develop different projects around the works kept by the museum itself. The latter, with a proposal curated by Gloria Moure, will intervene in the Romanesque, its most emblematic, which will be enriched with a new space dedicated to the Mestre de Cabestany thanks to the incorporation of four sculptural fragments from the monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes, acquired by the Generalitat of Catalonia.
After the fabulous What Humanity? with which he bid farewell to the year, the new programming begins with The Lost Mirror. Jews and converts in the Middle Ages, which was already seen in the Prado and which will arrive in Barcelona next week (from February 22 to May 26) with a totally different montage, which accentuates its drama and is enriched by being inserted within the Gothic area. Chronologically, Suzanne Valadon will follow. A modern epic (from April 18 to September 1), curated by Eduard Vallès, its new head of Collections. Once again, he will come to the rescue of lost figures in the history of art, in this case the painter and sculptor Eveli Torent (Badalona, 1976-Barcelona, 1940), who was linked to the environment of Els Quatre Gats, traveled to Paris and New York , where his relationship with Freemasonry would end up condemning him at the end of his life to a stay in the Model Prison in 1939. He died a year later.
Within this same desire to review forgotten artists is Longaron and Friday Foster, the unexpected heroine (from March 20 to June 24), an exhibition dedicated to Jordi Longaron, a Catalan cartoonist who in 1970 was hired by The Chicago Tribune Syndicate for a weekly strip that broke taboos (in states like Florida it was prohibited) by starring an African-American photographer-detective. A Noucentista from Girona fascinated by Hollywood aesthetics, Adolf Fargnoli, will arrive in May (until September 15), led by curator Pilar Vélez. And, finally, new works will be incorporated, such as a fireplace representing Saint George, the work of Joan Riera Casanovas, and the ceramist Josep Llorens will have a presence with his own space.
The MNAC has also taken a giant leap in its function as the leading museum (it has made 232 loans to 24 Catalan museums and has 65 works on deposit in another 4) and its social connection. "There is an enormous difference between this museum and the one we had. It is another museum," says the director, although its allocation (20 million, 1.3 more than the previous one if the budgets of the Generalitat are approved) still does not reach those of the 2008 (21 million), despite the fact that “everything costs 1,000% more.”
Serra takes a breath before answering for the umpteenth time about Manuel Borja-Villel's participation in the new MNAC project. “There is no topic. The relationship is very good. The new museum project is made and led from here, those of us who work and in collaboration with international colleagues, gallery owners, artists, collectors, local museums or neighborhood communities. Manolo is an advisor to the Generalitat, he does not work in the MNAC or for the MNAC. He works on topics that interest him such as decolonization or the role of museums. If any of those reflections that he is making as an advisor to the Generalitat interest us, we can take them into account, in the same way that we are interested in the opinion and we ask him what he expects from the new MNAC to a local museum. He is sure, he says, that in the Victoria Eugenia Pavilion there will not be any exhibition curated by the former director of the Reina Sofía during Manifesta, as had been said, nor on the occasion of the centenary.
