"It is urgent to raise the great discouragement, disgust and concern that we are experiencing in the world of contemporary art at this moment. There is a lack of policy, support, planning. There are layoffs, budget reductions, and ad hoc appointments. Closing of institutions. And an endless number of situations that ignore and forget the importance of all the work we have been doing in contemporary art and then almost disappear."
The speaker, from the Sabatini Auditorium of the Reina Sofía Museum, is Isidro López Aparicio, from the Union of Contemporary Artists, one of the entities that form the Sectoral Table of Contemporary Art and that today have launched a decalogue of measures in response to the current situation , which has worsened after the unexpected dismissal of Juan Antonio Álvarez Reyes as head of the Andalusian Center of Contemporary Art in Seville and the appointment without competition of his successor, and the dismissal by Vox of José Luis Pérez Pont, manager of the Consortium of Museums of Valencia .
Along with López Aparicio, Yolanda Romero, curator of the art collection of the Bank of Spain and member of the Association of Directors of Museums and Contemporary Art Centers, and María José Magaña, of the Association of Women in the Arts, are in the auditorium. Visuals. Also Idoia Fernández, from the Consortium of Contemporary Art Galleries, Adrián Piera, president of the Institute of Contemporary Art and Ana Velasco, from the State Federation of Professional Associations of Cultural Management, "transmitting the voice of thousands of people whom we represent" .
And what the members of the Sectorial Table, which was established in 2015 to give voice to contemporary art, demand is "honest and professional management in the organization of culture, and specifically in the visual arts, from the different local governments, regional and national, given the disaster and the erratic actions that are accompanying the actions of certain rulers in this last year.
Although they emphasize that culture is "a State issue - 3.5% of GDP, 700,000 jobs and a decisive factor for the development of society - that requires a Pact for Culture, we continue to observe very serious behavior." "Given the current situation of disregard and bad practices towards the cultural professional sector," states the preamble of the decalogue that they have made public, the Sectorial Table "expresses its absolute concern about the process of degradation of the political and social context that we are witnessing in recent times and which speak of a strong democratic and professional decline resulting in greater precariousness and instrumentalization of the sector and which reflects a perverse and contemptuous attitude towards spaces for the creation and exhibition of the visual arts.
The ten points that they consider fundamental are, to begin with, the defense of freedom of expression "in the face of the numerous examples of censorship to which the world of art and culture in general is being subjected," censorship that "is not only generated directly but also through the diversion of aid and budgets. Secondly, "the obligation to choose the directorates of museums and art centers through a public competition, through a joint selection committee made up of professionals from the sector, and the presentation of a project, according to the Document of Good Practices in Museums and Centers of Art, "a practice that had spread over the years in an absolutely natural way, but we observed with astonishment political leaders who handpicked the addresses, a totally unacceptable political interference."
They also ask to improve the budgets dedicated to culture and contemporary art, since, they say, "they do not correspond to the degree of wealth that the sector provides" and "the budgetary allocations are very poor both in support of creation and in the dissemination of the contemporary art". They also want the Statute of the Artist to be completed, "in which the visual arts have been largely forgotten", to fight against gender inequality, to promote artistic teachings with a state plan for artistic education like those of France and Portugal articulated from the Ministries of Culture and underline the urgency of a patronage law.
They want the VAT to be reduced "to end the discrimination that Spanish art suffers with respect to other cultural areas" in which there is very reduced VAT and they point out that France is faced with the changes that must be made in the coming months by the new European directive. has created a working group between Culture and the Treasury to leave it at 5.5%, "which benefits artists, galleries and collectors and allows them to work on equal terms."
Finally, they request that in the Ministry of Culture there be a specific secretariat for contemporary art to have a direct and stable dialogue and create state and regional commissions with the participation of professionals from the sector to monitor compliance with the Code of Good Practices and for its expansion. to other fields, including the field of private entities.
