Manuel Segade became the new director. museum Queen Sofia related to Madrid specializing in 20th century and contemporary art. He was born 46 years ago, was a student of Salesians and studied. The first cycle of journalism, Art History santiago. He also spent a year at the University of Leeds. “I was lucky to be a student of Griselda Pollock, a revolutionary from the 70s who changed the canon of European history. art that justifies the name of women in art history,” she praises. She reached the position after the head of the Basel Academy of Art and Design, Chus Martínez, won first place in a selection process that included another applicant from A Coruña. Segade, who gave a dozen interviews before heading to school this Wednesday morning. ministry of cultureIt envisions museums as spaces where citizens can access, integrate and participate in the problems of society.
The present places it in Reina Sofia. Do you remember your first job in a museum?
If I remember correctly, they were some cards I made for a collection in a museum that unfortunately no longer exists, the Unión Fenosa Museum in A Coruña. And then an exhibition as curator at the Luis Seoane Foundation in 2002 or 2003.
Well, have you thought that a museum of Reina Sofia’s existence is waiting for you one day?
Not at all. The mantra we are told as children and adolescents is that we will never be able to make a living from it by working in the arts or culture. I am happy to prove that this is a lie.
And you’ve been living for a while.
Since 2005, when I worked at Metronome, a private foundation for a collector in Barcelona, and ever since, I think I have not stopped living from art, for better or worse, as there are always unstable moments in the industry. .
From your previous experiences, including the current management of the Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo in Móstoles, what concepts or ideas could be put into practice in a giant like Reina Sofia?
It is an innovation process that is essential today to work with the art of today and to turn these museums into a kind of laboratory, considering that there should be experimental spaces for contemporary art where we do not know what kind of art will be made in the future and what kinds of things artists will create. We need places where artists have the right to be wrong. Museums have daily challenges: they have to be more ecological, more inclusive, gender-equal, relevant to the themes and issues artists are working on, which are the issues and concerns of today’s society. First of all, we need museums that guarantee access to culture, education systems that are accessible not only to the venue but also to all the events they organize.
Is this topic not fully confirmed yet?
Let’s say that access to art and culture is a fundamental right proclaimed by the Spanish Constitution, but we know that we sometimes run the risk of having difficulty reaching the general public, as in contemporary art museums. there is a gap. The example of the Móstoles museum, located in the south of Madrid in a poor area with a large immigrant population, shows that we have succeeded in making an impact, that people have taken an interest in the museum as an intellectual leisure place. With this, I believe there are many ways to work with the public, and the important thing is that we create a situation where people can encounter art and the wide variety of tools that museums have to offer.
How should that gap you speak of be closed?
To listen to what is happening on the street and in the society, what the people want from us, and to negotiate these needs with contemporary art. Consensus is achieved through working with people and negotiating. This is very simple, basic. The public museum is a democratic space that should create opportunities for the participation of its audience.
Has the general public opinion of museums changed, is it expecting something different, do they have new demands and therefore should museums be transformed in different sizes?
Museums dedicated to contemporary art are better prepared to adapt to society than other cultural institutions. What contemporary artists offer us is always based on a radical creative work that allows us to think about things in a different way than the traditional way of thinking. This is where contemporary art and its institutions can make a very powerful contribution, not only through what artists showcase, but also using their own methodologies. Radical thinking, with its already established laws, is essential, even applicable, for the administration of reality.
Are such museums healthy today?
They are in a very good moment. They’ve managed to form part of the citizen’s agenda, and that’s great news. Proof of this is that Reina Sofia is the most visited museum in Spain. Its weight is huge, just see it in the number of people calling me today. [por ayer] interview [risas].
What do you want to do with Reina Sofia?
I have not been able to share a project with the museum itself or the Ministry of Culture yet. Reina Sofia is one of the most important museums in the West, it is well looked after outside of our borders and I think we need some consolidation. The most important thing is to know how to share the very strong symbolic capital of the museum with the general scene of Spanish art in order to make all Spanish art more visible abroad. This is the main purpose and also the great challenge.
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Manuel Segade (A Coruna, 1977) He received his PhD in Art History in Santiago. became the chief curator. Galician Santiago Center for Contemporary Art and director of the Dos de Mayo Museum in Móstoles. In front Queen Sofia, He will replace Manuel Borja-Villel, who has held the post since 2008. forbes this year included Segade top 25 of the most influential personalities in the Spanish art industry