Manuel Borja-Villel: "Western museums are not sustainable"

BarcelonaIt's certainly curious to see Manuel Borja-Villel (Burriana, 1957) inside the Palau Moja, the headquarters of the Directorate General of Cultural Heritage, where he has worked for about two years. He is one of the professionals who, in recent years, has dedicated the most effort to ensuring that museums represent those who have no voice, those whose history has been denied, and who now moves through the residence of an aristocrat who dealt in slaves. But Borja plans to leave soon: he will finish his term as museum advisor to the Generalitat in December, two months before his contract expires, with a report on how to rethink the concept of a museum, which he will submit to the board of trustees of the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC). All the reflections and debates in this report are the result of the work Borja has carried out over the last two years with dozens of cultural agents and collectives, including IDRA, Transductores, and Entrar Afuera, and of a major exhibition whose main venue was the Palau Victoria Eugenia.

Borja honed his skills at the Antoni Tàpies Foundation and the MACBA, and over fifteen years he transformed a lethargic Reina Sofía into one of the world's most innovative museums. All this audacity did not go unnoticed by the then Councilor for Culture, Jordi Martí, who, along with President Pere Aragonès, offered him a newly created position for another major undertaking: to advise and oversee the MNAC expansion project, as well as provide an external perspective.

But the announcement stirred controversy: the director of the MNAC, Pepe Serra, refused to collaborate on the project for which Borja-Villel was appointed, with the position of director of the Culture Department's temporary program to advise on heritage matters. “When I arrived in September, Pepe Serra clearly didn’t want to be involved in the project, so what I did was develop a project to rethink the very idea of a museum,” says Manuel Borja-Villel. “My relationship with the MNAC is the same as before, neither good nor bad,” he explains. In any case, he leaves satisfied: “I’ve been able to accomplish everything I had envisioned.” Only a few publications remain unfinished. Regarding the country’s museums, a widespread sentiment was that they should have been given priority financially instead of hiring him, so his relationship with these institutions was similarly “polarized.” “Obviously, resources are needed, that much is clear,” says Borja-Villel. “What sometimes surprises me is that you talk to museum directors and it seems like you’re talking to human resources directors. The lack of resources and people cannot be an excuse for not rethinking what you’re doing, for not rethinking the paradigms, since you’ve just rethought the paradigms, since you’ve just rethought the paradigms, since you’ve just rethought the paradigms, since you’ve just rethought the paradigms. Linked today to the far right. Complaining cannot be an end in itself, it’s a means.”

Among the institutions with which he had a most fruitful relationship are the Museum of Medieval Art of Vic (MEV), the Cerdanyola Art Museum –directed by Txema Romero, now in charge of the Sitges Museums–, and Arts Santa Mònica –led by Enric Pu. “The MEV has been fundamental; it has developed an exhibition entitled Instruments of the soul"...which incorporates some ideas from the project," explains Borja-Villel.

Madrid's cultural wars in Barcelona

Given the precedent of the controversy surrounding the appointment, the reception that the exhibition entitled To imagine landscapesThe exhibition, with its diverse decolonial, feminist, and ecological perspectives, was also polarized. At times, the criticism recalled the culture war sparked in Madrid by the Reina Sofía's reorganization of its permanent collection. "My assessment of the exhibition is positive; there has been debate, everyone has taken a stand. But part of this debate has been much ad hominem, “It’s not about me personally, but about the historiographical proposal, for example, that might be wrong,” he states. “This is common in these kinds of conflicts,” he adds, “and this personalistic debate has meant that one sector hasn’t discussed what kind of museums we want, whether museums can survive, whether they are sustainable, whether they should be expanded indefinitely. And I’m not referring to the MNAC, but to museums in general.” “The noise won’t erase the fact that there’s an underlying debate because, in general, Western museums can’t survive, generally speaking. The Louvre robbery is a failure in many areas, but it’s also a symptom that something isn’t quite working,” he concludes. And, on another note, he responds to the criticism he received. the artist Francesc Torres In an article published in the ARA, he questions the very idea of the museum. "The idea that the museum is like the wheel, that everything has already been invented, and that all you have to do is fix it a little, or modernize it—it seems as if they haven't realized what has happened in the world since the French Revolution, or since the Haitian Revolution of 1804!" "What has happened is that positions have become quite defined, and I think that's a good thing," he emphasizes.

Growing museums when talking about degrowth

Beyond the MNAC, expansion work has begun at the MACBA in Barcelona. In Spain, the expansion of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum is scheduled for completion next year. And internationally, the British Museum announced its expansion project in February. "I'm not saying that the MACBA and MNAC expansions—or the Bilbao one—are fair or unfair, but it's curious that this recurring pattern is occurring in a society where the 19th-century idea of ​​indefinite growth has clearly ended, at least for a good while," he observes. "After the pandemic, we were all saying that we had to move towards a different kind of economy, less focused on this type of growth, more on rethinking the contemporary art museum. So, shouldn't we stop and consider whether this expansion is truly necessary?" Thus, ignoring this situation means being carried away by past glories. "It's a kind of anachronistic growth, in the terms of the 1980s, when everything was growing, when there was private money. With a bit of luck, there will be what there will be, if there are no cuts. Imagine a museum where you dedicate 10% or 15% to activity, as happens in Barcelona. Will it pay for it? That debate should be having," he warns.

Towards a polyphonic museum

A common argument from those who resist challenging the foundations of museums with themes related to colonialism and the environment is that it's nothing new and can be found in museums everywhere. "The general decolonial discourse ends up being very hegemonic," warns Borja-Villel. While this discourse is subject to criticism, he proposed other ideas to represent historically invisible subjects and give them a place in history and in museums: "Who calls? Who decides? Who speaks? Where are those who have no voice, those who have no stories?" asks Borja-Villel, who has an international project ahead of him. And, once again, he revived the idea of a "situated museum" to recall the silenced history of the shantytowns that once stood on Montjuïc. The curator is also interested in his collective work. Thus, the collaboration between Helios F. Garcés, Miguel Ángel Vargas, and Lola Lasurt resulted in a painting by Lasurt about Nonell without her characteristic Roma women. "With Lasurt, they worked on this piece with this absence, because you can't speak for Roma women, and with Garcés and Vargas, they worked on a whiteboard where they ended up questioning the Constitution. This type of debate, this idea of a museum that isn't linear, where there's a time when you might be talking about Eusebio Güell and you have to talk," Borja-Villel explained. Another uncomfortable case was the questioning of the GATCPAC architects because they used wood from an African colonial company. "Were they left-wing? Probably. Were they avant-garde? Absolutely. Were they progressive for their time? Yes. But progressive for whom? This, moreover, is an element for rethinking the avant-garde, not from a reactionary point of view, but by considering how the avant-garde is complicit in what it does,"

How much energy does an exhibition use?

The detractors of To imagine landscapes The conservation measures were questioned, specifically the temperature of the space and also the energy consumption of the air conditioning. In this regard, Borja claims to have an "agreement" with the MNAC to replace, if they deemed it appropriate, some drawings by Feliu Elias with facsimiles. "Of the important pieces, the Museum of Medieval Art of Vic, the Reina Sofía Museum, and the Prado Museum didn't take anything," he explains. "The cost of air conditioning was a traditional expense. What I wanted was to raise a debate about whether museums are sustainable. If the works should be kept at 21°C or 22°C, the answer is no." Therefore, he refers to the directors of the Prado and the British Museum—both, like the MNAC, members of the Bizot group of museum directors—who have stated that the works can be kept at up to 25°C.

A feminist vision of heritage

Another key element of Borja's proposed restructuring of museums is heritage management, as could be seen in To imagine landscapesInstead of monumental, fixed, 19th-century collections, he proposes more fluid permanent collections with temporary sections. That's why he recalls the etymology of the word. heritageand proposes changing this idea from a feminist perspective. Instead of property, marriage. Therefore, we should talk "about life, about care," within the context of ongoing care. "We will have to introduce other things that we raised in To imagine landscapes “Like orality, which was represented by the Veus Gitanes Association of Sant Adrià de Besòs,” says Borja. This implies another way of understanding the collections: “All I wanted was to suggest that this debate take place without us tearing our hair out, without thinking that we are destroying anything. And I think that’s important, because the three things are linked: sustainability, heritage, and governance. Because in this whirlwind of expansions, construction, and money, governance will have to be measured differently.”