Carles García Hermosilla: "From 1714 onwards, citizens were forced to demolish their own houses, and this will be explained in the Born."

BarcelonaCarlos García Hermosilla (Tàrrega, 1972) was appointed director of the Barcelona History Museum last December. A museologist and anthropologist, he directed the Museu del Ter for twenty years and joined the Barcelona museum following the retirement of Joan Roca. With seventeen branch offices and many projects already underway, the new director faces many challenges, including giving a new direction to a space that always raises a storm of controversy. the Borne.

One of the first changes that has been made has been to lose the acronym Muhba.

— It was better to make it more understandable. Acronyms and these kinds of concepts work very well in intimate circles, but we want to reach a much wider audience. It's clearer that way. Plus, there's the incorporation of the Born into the Barcelona History Museum, which needed to be visible.

The Barcelona History Museum has many sub-branches with the idea that it should be present throughout the city. But there are sub-locations that can only open a few days a week and with very specific hours. Will this deployment continue?

— The idea of a citywide museum is a good one. We must create a network to make heritage accessible to citizens, but we must do so with imaginative proposals. The question is how to manage this network so that it's not just a map, but also allows us to maintain appropriate opening hours and give these spaces a social use. We must consider how to improve their accessibility and opening hours.

One of the spaces that will be more accessible will be the Water House?

— A guided tour of the two houses, Trinitat Nova and Trinitat Vella, is now available. We are working on a museum project on water, climate, and the city, which we hope to open this year.

How will the change of direction be noticeable in the new programming?

— This is my first year, and programming takes time. When I started, very important projects were already underway. There's the Casa del Agua (Water House), the Center for the Interpretation of Work and the City in Fabra i Coats, and the renovation of the Born district. The important thing is to better deploy the museum's communication strategy, especially considering the digital aspect. The museum has a very good capacity to program and disseminate research, but we need to make it more relevant to the public.

Regarding the Born, The previous management regretted that it had not been explained well because there was no compass. Now you have?

— Born has been undergoing changes. It was incorporated into the Barcelona History Museum at the end of 2023, and our aim is to recover the Born exhibition spaces. The Barcelona of 1700 will be explained, and the tour will be open to visiting the site, and we are working to make this possible for free. Currently, visitors can only depart the site on guided tours. The Castellví Room is expected to explain the Barcelona that emerged after the defeat of 1714, how the city recovered and eventually became the industrial capital of the western Mediterranean.

And where will the political consequences of this defeat be explained?

— The rubble tells us this. Starting in 1714, citizens were forced to demolish their own homes, and this will be explained later. It was a very important area of ​​Barcelona, ​​accounting for a fifth of the city.

El Born has had many stages. The first one was heavily influenced by the tricentennial and the defeat of 1714, and then by local, national, and international memory. Where will it go next?

— Memory was emphasized from the perspective of democratic memory. A history museum is a museum of memory and history, and these two concepts are constantly in dialogue. You can't talk about history without talking about the memory of women, workers, children, immigrants, the bourgeoisie... We continue to explore all dimensions of the concept of memory.

And where will the memory of the 20th century and all the episodes of repression be explained?

— There wasn't just repression; there was also democracy-building, survival, popular culture, struggle... many of these things are explained in Bon Pastor, in the Plaza del Rey, in the Born... The museum and heritage operation of Bon Pastor is impressive.

I was talking about struggles. For example, the democratic struggle. Is the whole issue of the Civil War, the concentration camps, the prisons... sufficiently explained? There had been talk of doing so from Via Laietana or Montjuïc Castle.

— We don't have any physical spaces to explain it, but a lot of outreach work and workshops have been done, and we're determined to continue doing so. But I don't have any permanent heritage space projects on this topic. I think the Model already serves that purpose.

In recent years, statues related to slavery and dictatorship have been removed from public spaces. Do you think they should be hidden or used to explain part of the past?

— It's complicated. Each case is different, and I wouldn't do the same thing in every one. I'm a proponent of contextualizing and explaining, but the urban landscape must also change as new values and perspectives emerge. It should be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.

Would you make an exhibition with this type of heritage?

— It is not currently being considered, but it may be an option.

There's a rise of the far right in many parts of Europe. Do you take this into account when planning the museum's future?

— Not yet explicitly in the programming, but it's clear that we must debate the present and what future we want, and everything that's happening around the democratic crisis. We ask ourselves many questions about feminism, inequality... Perhaps we should emphasize the positive dimension, that a different world is possible. Many of the people who led the political struggles believed in this.

Are these struggles visible enough?

— There's the Democratic Memorial, and a lot of work has been done since El Born. We won't stop addressing these issues.

And what about women? Are they sufficiently visible in the Barcelona History Museum?

— There's room for improvement. In this regard, we have a lot of ground to cover.

And how will it be improved?

— The diagnosis has been made. It's not just about making women visible, but also about giving them a greater voice. Ensuring their voices emerge. We must be sensitive and make them mainstream across the institution.

Will we be able to see in the museum? the 15th or 16th century ship that was found in April and which has been baptized as Citadel I?

— There is no specific project for the findings yet. We have already incorporated the Barceloneta I which can be seen in the Plaça del Rei. It was a very important investment and project.