We are in an era of systemic crisis, of ecological crisis, of inequality, with cultural wars, false reports that are repeated on social networks and create subjectivities; culture and cultural institutions have a lot to say. And therefore, a challenge like that of the MNAC, which is not to be expanded but to be refounded, going from being an encyclopedic museum to a social one, is not only an opportunity but an ethical and political duty".
In his first public appearance, Manuel Borja-Villel thus argued the reasons that led him to accept the position of adviser to the Department of Culture, in which the formulation of the new MNAC - its director, Pepe Serra, has removed from his vocabulary the term expansion, too reductionist – will be the star project. But not the only one. During the short time that he has been in his new office at Palau Moja, barely a fortnight, he has already started talks with Arts Santa Mònica and the Tàpies Foundation to activate the initiatives.
The appointment for a period of three years of Borja-Villel as director of the temporary Program for the development and impetus in the art museum system of the expansion and impetus project of the National Museum of Art of Catalonia, advanced by La Vanguardia in March, it had caused some confusion in the world of Catalan art, due to the degree of influence that the new position could have on Serra's decisions and his involvement in the rest of the museums. Borja-Villel himself took it upon himself to clarify doubts by assuring that "I do not have executive functions, my work is of a different kind: it consists of thinking, advising, interpellating, finding cracks and moving around". he pointed out, and assured that, after deciding not to stand for re-election to the position at the Queen Sofia Museum, he was clear that he did not want to lead any other institution again.
Borja-Villel was accompanied by Pepe Serra himself, who took the opportunity to explain the keys to this new MNAC, in which the process has long since been launched with his team and will have to culminate in 2029, and for councilor Natàlia Garriga, for whom Borja-Villel's return to Barcelona means "the opportunity to incorporate a voice as powerful as hers" into the reflection process that is already underway. "In Catalonia - pointed out Garriga - we want to capture all the talent possible, be ambitious, add qualified views and expand the debate", in addition to helping the internationalization of Catalan art.
For Borja-Villel, this "homecoming" (he directed the Tàpies Foundation between 1990 and 1998, before jumping to the Macba, under whose mandate he succeeded in placing it among the leading European museums) is a "privilege" at this time of profound transformations of museum institutions. “The MNAC is not the Prado, which is a royal collection; it is not the Reina Sofia, which is a transitional art museum; it is not the British, which is an imperial museum. It's something else. And to understand that with this you start a network, relationships with other institutions, that there are cracks to go from an encyclopedic museum to a social one, it was an opportunity that was not and could not be wasted". How will your work materialize? He will not make reports, he clarifies, but will carry out the curation of exhibitions or public programs, not only at the MNAC but in other museums.
Newcomer from the São Paulo Biennial, of which he is one of the curators, Borja-Villel recalled that for him institutions "are not a place of representation but of negotiation", that encyclopedic museums leave out the peripheries, "categorize, they tell us what to think, they prioritize domination, power, profit, over life", when it comes to getting a museum that "prioritises life over power". And he said that another important element influenced his decision to return to Catalonia and in fact, according to his opinion, "in Catalonia they have a tradition of dissenting without violence, dissenting from the knowledge that there can be tension , that there can be very strong disagreements but there is always respect for the other".
