Barcelona finds its home in an iconic International Exposition building

BarcelonaBarcelona will have a center dedicated to the performing arts, located in the Montjuïc Press House, one of the emblematic buildings built for the 1929 International Exposition. The world turns and returns to El Born. Almost fifteen years after Jordi Hereu's City Council and the Barcelona Provincial Council signed an agreement to dedicate this space to the Museum of Performing Arts (MAE), and after the document was shelved, the same institutions have now announced, once again, an agreement that goes in the same direction, linking it to the Institut del Teatre. The city council will hand over the building to the Provincial Council, which will be responsible for the comprehensive renovation and creation of the new facility in preparation for 2029, the year in which Montjuïc will celebrate the centenary of the Expo.

Two decades later, however, the new project will go beyond being a traditional museum and will have more hybrid uses. In fact, it will even change its name to become the Center for Research and Community Action in the Performing Arts of the Institut del Teatre. "It's a paradigm shift. We want to invent a new model that can be a benchmark at the European and global levels," says Pau González, the Deputy for Culture. In addition to maintaining the conservation and dissemination of performing arts heritage, the project will incorporate residencies for artists and researchers; laboratories that link arts, technology, and society; research projects that focus on contemporary theater and critical thinking; and collaborative projects with the social fabric. The Provincial Council is in the process of aligning the Institut del Teatre with the University of Barcelona.

For the Deputy for Culture, the new project kills many birds with one stone: "We're bringing life to a space that deserves to be used again, updating a gem like the Documentation Center and Museum of the Performing Arts, guaranteeing a neighborhood space, and dignifying the memory of the arts." theatrical As is Catalonia." In addition to the new research center, the project ensures that the building maintains its intended neighborhood uses and will continue to house the Friends of the Press House Association.

The library is on its way.

As the ARA advancedIn the summer of 2024, the City Council had halted the last project planned for this building on Avenida Rius i Taulet, which was to be a library and a neighborhood center for Poble-sec, because they wanted to find a larger, more central space. In July, they announced the expropriation of a property on Carrer Blesa, where the Castellers del Poble-sec rehearse, to create a large neighborhood facility that would house the Francesc Boix Library and various popular culture and neighborhood associations.

This has paved the way for the long-standing demand for Barcelona to have a major theater museum—although, with the current announcement, there is no outline of an exhibition space that would allow for the display of the vast heritage preserved by the MAE, from the costumes of Xirgu and Caballé to the stage designs of Fabià Puigserve la Barca. The Museum of Performing Arts now occupies the ground floor of the Institut del Teatre and is under the jurisdiction of the Barcelona Provincial Council, as it was founded a century ago, during the Mancomunitat de Catalunya (Catalan Commonwealth). The new space would reinforce the theatrical triangle formed by the Mercat de les Flors (Flower Market), the Teatre Lliure (Livestock Theatre), and the Institut del Teatre (Institute of Theatre). Historically, the museum was meant to be just another element of the Cité del Teatre (City of Theatre).

Disused for 30 years

The majestic modernist building by Pere Domènech i Roura, son of Lluís Domènech i Montaner, hosted the press covering the 1929 Expo and is now unoccupied and in a state of disrepair. Until the late 1990s, it was the headquarters of the Guardia Urbana (City Police), but since then, only the ground floor has been used for occasional purposes. The building, which has 1,500 m2², It will continue to host the Friends of the Press House Association—made up of neighborhood associations and journalist organizations—"which has been fighting for years to recover such an emblematic space," explains Raquel Gil, fifth deputy mayor and councilor for Sants-Montjuïc. The spaces dedicated to residents and organizations will remain as they were.

The City Council and the Provincial Council want this space to capture its historical legacy linked to communication and, therefore, be a place to reflect "on the critical consumption of information" and "concepts such as truth, critical thinking, public trust, and cultural democracy," they point out. In 2018, the ONL Arquitectura studio won the competition for the rehabilitation of the space, and now that project will have to be modified to adapt it to the new uses of the Institut del Teatre. Although the Barcelona Provincial Council will pay for it in full, the works will be carried out, as planned, by the municipal company BIMSA to speed up the process. The executive project is expected to be completed in 2026 and the building to be completed in 2029.