Contemporary Art Museum of Barcelona To Double Exhibition Space For Its Own Collection

Written by Elisenda Rosanas Wednesday, 04 April 2012 23:07

Barcelona, Spain (ACN).- After recently celebrating its 15th anniversary, the Contemporary Art Museum of Barcelona (MACBA) wanted to underline its own impressive collection, giving it more visibility, strength and identity within the museum facilities. So, from February 2012, the permanent collection will occupy the first floor of the Richard Meir building. The project will double the amount of exhibition space for these pieces of art. However, it will not be a typical ‘permanent’ collection, but will be displayed as a series of temporary exhibitions. These exhibitions will show different narratives and focus on different themes, using the museum’s collection. Despite the 5% budget reduction for 2011, leaving the Museum’s yearly budget at 12 million euros, the MACBA faces an intense year. Apart from the permanent collection’s redistribution, 2 major projects are being undertaken: ‘The International’ exhibition, organized with 4 other European museums, and the acquisition of ‘Between the Frames: The Forum’ a major installation by Antoni Muntadas, and creating its own podcast site . . Radio Web MACBA.

One of the most dynamic museums in Catalonia, the MACBA faced an immediate challenge in 2011, to foster its permanent collection. To do so, it will need to undergo an obvious change; exhibition space to display the permanent collection will be doubled and will occupy the entire first floor of the museum. The intention is not to focus only on a “permanent” collection, but to offer dynamism to visitors with a series of temporary exhibitions using the museum’s own collection. According to MACBA’s director, Bartomeu Marí, “more things, different kinds of exhibitions and different narratives” will be experienced.

Despite the 5% budget reduction, the museum has seen its activity increase, reaching the levels of 2009. In 2010, it was decided in to reduce the number of activities to focus on quality. The museum’s managers believe that this new approach will increase the activity without undermining quality. The agreement with La Caixa savings bank to share their contemporary art collections is a cornerstone of MACBA’s activities. MACBA, as a relatively new institution have a particularly strong collection of important art from the last 25 years. La Caixa, however, has a superb collection of art from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

The MACBA will buy a giant work from Antoni Muntadas, entitled ‘Between the Frames: The Forum’. It is a series of closed rooms, painted in different colours, where interviews with art agents are displayed. The work will arrive in October 2011. In addition, the MACBA is collaborating with La Moderna Galerija of Ljubljana (Slovenia), the Stedelijk van Abbermuseum of Eindhoven (The Netherlands), the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunt of Antwerp (Belgium) and the Julia Koller Society of Bratislava (Slovakia). The 5 museums have put together a project called “La Internacional”. It is an exhibition that attempts to portray the art vanguards of the end of the 20th century.

Built on what was once a monastic enclave near the historic Casa de la Caritat in the Old Gothic Quarter, the MACBA opened to the public on November 28^th 1995.  Designed by Pritzker Prize winning American architect Richard Meier, the stunningly modern building was immediately christened “the Pearl” by locals. The MACBA collection contains internationally recognized artists like Paul Klee, but its real strengths come from its collection of Catalan artists like Antoni Tàpies, one of Barcelona's most famous artists. Following the recent collection sharing agreement with La Caixa, the MACBA have gained access to a lot more works which can be included. Both the MACBA and CaixaForum in Barcelona will be showing themed exhibitions taking advantage of the shared collections starting in 2011. Visit the museum's website at : www.macba.cat