This is one of the obituaries that I never thought I would write, that of Pepe Guirao.
Friend, great professional and better person. We met in 1992, when we both held positions of responsibility in the world of culture, and during these thirty years we have agreed on so many things and so many causes. From his serene gaze, his intelligence and his knowledge I learned things that I never found in a book.
The life of Pepe, that is how we all called him, is the life of a person who has been able to develop his passion, his love for art, culture, creation, artistic dissemination… from various areas of public administration , from the Diputación of his native Almería, passing through the Department of Culture of the Junta de Andalucía, and finally calling on the Ministry of Culture.
Pepe Guirao has shown that a field as sensitive and complex as culture can be managed with rigor, sobriety, perseverance and a lot of work. All this in permanent contact with the different cultural sectors. Pepe was a minister who listened much more than he spoke, there are ministers who speak and others who, above all else, listen, process and intervene. He was one of the seconds.
With Pepe you knew that his decisions would not create conflict, he had previously negotiated them, agreed, so that when they were perfected they could be executed without difficulties. He did not give useless battles, he created the conditions for the decisions to be approved and agreed upon by the majority of the sector.
His time at the Almería Provincial Council and later at the General Directorate of Cultural Assets of the Regional Ministry of Culture brought him closer to the cultural management of local resources, libraries, archives, local museums, and at the same time allowed him promote high-level initiatives such as the Andalusian Center for Contemporary Art.
His incorporation into the management of the Reina Sofía Museum, a position he held from 1994 to 2001, marked a period in which the collection was reorganized, artists such as Juan Gris were incorporated, and European artists were chosen. His personality, which sought consensus and agreements, of state policies rather than government, made it possible for him to remain as director of the entity with governments of the PSOE and the PP, maintaining his criteria and ideas.
The most interesting thing about Guirao’s career is that once he left the management of the Reina Sofía, he launched Casa Encendida, a true beacon of the most contemporary creativity in Madrid, where he freely accommodated cosmopolitan creative projects, closely linked to a generation of young people who could not find in Madrid the space that would allow them to present their ideas in any artistic language. As if when leaving the strong and solid walls of the Reina Sofía, Pepe was looking for a space with huge windows, light walls, in which he would fit everything that the future could write. This is one of Pepe’s great legacies, the Casa Encendida that ignites the beginnings of the most innovative neighborhood in the city, Lavapiés.
As Minister of Culture, he always approached the cultural sector, resolved some entrenched conflicts, promoted the highly demanded Statute of the Artist, and as Minister, the Cervantes Prize was awarded to the poet Joan Margarit.
Cultured man, discreet, not at all petulant, he always contributed his ability, knowledge and generosity to all the projects in which he participated. He was very clear that he was the minister of all Spaniards, and that he was at the service of citizens and professionals in the sector. When he left the ministry, in the House of the Seven Chimneys there was a silence and a feeling of immense orphanhood. As if when Pepe left that building, a way of doing politics was lost, adding, listening, solving, informing, explaining… in short, politics in capital letters.
Those of us who enjoy his friendship today feel that he has left us a great friend and a true public servant.
