Mateu Hernández: "My new challenge is to internationalize Casa Batlló through art"

Casa Batlló incorporates a new member to its team.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
06 June 2023 Tuesday 16:54
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Mateu Hernández: "My new challenge is to internationalize Casa Batlló through art"

Casa Batlló incorporates a new member to its team. This is the expert in cultural, local and city economic development Mateu Hernández, who since Tuesday has been in charge of promoting the international growth of traveling exhibitions.

His experience in advisory councils in cities such as Turin, as well as being involved in the strategic plan of New York, the OECD Council and the city of Oslo, have made him an ideal candidate for this new mission of the Barcelona monument: internationalization. Through the art.

"I am excited to be part of this and I face an important challenge, that of making this great monument known to the world and that it is present beyond its four walls," Hernández himself explains to La Vanguardia, who admits having the art in the DNA because his father was neither more nor less than the painter Joan Hernández Pijuan.

To make this possible, they are studying "commissioning powerful artists with a series of immersive exhibitions that circulate in different countries and that do not remain only in Barcelona," the expert says.

A plan that arose after the global success of other initiatives carried out, such as the work Living Architecture, by the digital artist Refik Anadol, on the façade or the NFT inspired by the Barcelona house that was auctioned at Christie's and was sold for $1.38 million.

Another example is Gaudí's Cube Casa Batlló, an immersive cube in which visitors to the house can delve into the legacy of the Catalan genius and the monument. “These three actions were what led Casa Batlló to see the importance of making itself known and having an echo abroad. My mission now and that of the team is to perpetuate it and internationalize the famous house of Gaudí through art”. A mission in which, he assures, "is already working thoroughly."

Hernández comes from Barcelona Global, an organization of which he was the founder and CEO. He studied Law at the University of Barcelona and completed a Master's in Public and Social Policy at UPF with Johns Hopkins University.