In September 2020, Nuria Enguita was elected the new director of the IVAM, a museum she knew as a curator between 1991 and 1998. She achieved the responsibility after a brilliant career as the person in charge and manager of spaces such as the Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona or more recently Bombas Gens. in Valencia. One fact: the IVAM celebrates its 35th anniversary this year.
Historian and curator of numerous exhibitions in Spain, as well as three international biennials (Frankfurt, Medellín and São Paulo), she explained to this newspaper three years ago what her objectives were to turn the museum into one of the key references of modern and contemporary art in Europe. In this interview, Enguita takes stock of her management and offers insights into what she wants to define in the coming years.
I quote what he told us three years ago: “This is a modern art museum anchored in contemporaneity and I am looking for the meaning of what modern art means now.” Have you achieved it?
I think so. We are in the process, but it is true that in three and a half years quite a few of the wishes and projects that I proposed have been achieved. We have worked on the question of modernity and contemporaneity both in exhibitions and with the collection, and a good example is the “Popular” exhibition. I have worked with the idea of ??reviewing the stories of the past, breaking hegemonies, reviewing the histories of art and the world, because for me modernity has not ended and, furthermore, its urgencies are imposed again. The work with the collection, the exhibitions with the excellent collections of the museum, which is the cornerstone of the IVAM, have helped us review the histories of art and the world.
There was another idea that you highlighted in that interview, that of installing the IVAM in the 21st century.
Because I understood, and we have done so, that we had to work so that the IVAM headquarters responded to the demands and needs of the new century. We have turned the headquarters into an open, porous, inviting space, a place where you can come and meet to have a drink and see art. We have converted the hall into a public square so that visitor satisfaction is greater and greater. We also continue making improvements, such as the restoration of the “Wall room” and we are close to activating a new website that will incorporate new content and make the cataloging visible.
You also considered a rereading of those same funds to break clichés about previous positions. What have been the most significant broad strokes?
When I arrived there were a series of hegemonic lines or contexts and I wanted to promote a model of transformation of those readings, to approach it from historicity, as a movement of history; with the idea that the past is always present, but also with the conviction that art is a historical fact. We have carried out a review of artistic practices to increase the presence of women, but above all it is about working to make this inclusion meaningful.
As?
Looking at how these women transform the history of art. This is the case of Anni Albers, who has recognition, who opens a world that was not open and re-signifies everything that has followed in the work of many young artists. Or the case of Terera Lanceta, pioneer of contemporary textile art, which is now fashionable, but when we started she was not. Now many museums have opened up to arts such as textiles and this obviously helps personal careers.
Let’s return to the IVAM collection. Several of the exhibitions that you have programmed draw on these funds. Are you going to continue with this dynamic?
The “Popular” exhibition is the best example and is, in my opinion, a masterpiece that only curator Pedro Romero could achieve. The exhibition confirms the power of the IVAM collection and the enormous possibilities it offers for dialogue between authors or artistic currents. You can even offer that dialogue between local photographers on the side of the American New Deal. “Popular,” I insist, speaks of the world, as one person told me; It speaks of the very thesis that brings together that modernity of all those people who have been excluded from political life but have an enormous symbolic representation.
In October 2022 you presented an ambitious exhibition about Julio González, whose work cements the creation of the IVAM, with the aim of offering a reinterpretation of the character and his work.
I had that thorn in me. I think that the Julio González exhibition is a great exhibition in the sense that we have been able to offer a new reading of his work. Juan José Lahuerta, curator of the exhibition, has done a formidable job, he has gone to the archives, he has consulted everything, and he shows us a creator far from the conventions that had been said about him. What he shows us here is a modern artist, without breaking with the academy, and we have exhibited many works that had never been seen before. The exhibition has had a great impact, people have come from many places, but there have been no criticisms that value this exhibition and I think there should be.
Have you fulfilled the exhibition program you wanted?
I have quite completed the electoral program (laughs).
The IVAM with you has broadened the perspective. There was a lot of determination in the past to turn it into a museum with a “Mediterranean” look.
The IVAM is a transversal museum, like Valencia is. The Valencian context is crossed by many connections and the idea of ??generating links interests me a lot, not only with the Mediterranean. Our perspective is broad and reaches Europe, the USA, but also Africa and the Middle East. We must have the ability to connect externally but also internally: in this regard we have a public program called Poliglotía in which we work with local people and migrants, for example, developing guided tours that are a success.
Do you think the IVAM has managed to reposition itself as a reference for modern art as it was when it was founded?
I don’t like to speak well of myself, but it has been achieved. The IVAM is once again a reference for modern and contemporary art in Spain. On a professional, expert and public level, we are growing, and we have recovered the drive that the institution radiated with our study, training and research programs, which attract numerous artists.
What is the collaboration model with other museums?
It depends on the projects. For example, we are now collaborating with the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Museé du quay Branly in Paris or the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon to program several exhibitions. And it is true that when you collaborate, a certain relationship, complicity, is created. I would like to continue collaborating with European museums, which is relatively easy, but also with other continents. We have several projects underway.
One of the most recognized exhibitions was the one dedicated to the graphic art of what is known as the Bakalao Route.
It was a great satisfaction. For a while I read several books about the route, about the phenomenon, such as “En Éxtasis” by Joan Oleaque (Barlin). I think that an exhibition should be made on the architecture of the route, because a great project is about to be done on the route.
Will you continue to support art created by young people?
We will go further. The “Art and Context” program has been a success. It is important to provide means of production and museum attention to new creators. And this has allowed us to grow a lot in young audiences, who have understood the proposal and like to get closer to the museum. I think there is a reconnection of the museum with youth. That is why I wanted the institution to be understood as a public square, versatile, capable of offering a performance or a musical performance.
What objectives would you like to develop in the coming years?
We have completed a large part of our program but there are issues that need to be refined. I would like to continue working on our collection, our funds; We are in the process of review and cataloguing. There will be, from there, more exhibitions and more dialectics between creators and currents. We prepare some more thesis projects, which are more expensive and complicated. But I think after three years things are working well.
The new PP and Vox government has reduced their budget
It has not been only to us, it has been to the entire instrumental sector of the Generalitat Valenciana. I have asked that we not be cut; I understand that it is not increased, but I would like it not to be cut.
The Department of Culture, on which the IVAM depends, is in the hands of Vox, of Vice President Vicente Barrera. Have you had any type of pressure, interference or censorship from the Minister?
I have to say clearly no. At the last governing council in which the accounts and presentations were approved, no one said anything to me. So far there has been no interference.
Have you met with the counselor?
I have met twice, one of these was when he came to the opening of “Popular”, and everything has been cordial.
