The new artistic director of the Museum of the University of Navarra, Gabriel Pérez-Barreiroconsider that art It is “everything that touches the limit of the known and the unknown” since a work can never be fully understood, although he acknowledges that this is a question on which “everyone must find their own definition.”
Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, graduate and doctor in art history from the Universities of Aberdeen and Essex (UK), is an expert in Latin American art and has over 30 years of professional experience in the art sector as a curator, cultural manager, professor, researcher, writer and lecturer, collaborating for six years at MUN as an associate professor of the MA in Curatorial Studies.
This week Pérez-Barreiro began his new career in a museum he knows welln but the one who now occupies a position of greater responsibility as artistic director of plastic arts working hand in hand with the other part of the artistic direction of the MUN, Teresa Lasheras, who is in charge of the performing arts part.
His goal, he said in an interview with EFE, is to be able to “define and execute a programming mission” of the museum, which makes understanding what they communicate and to whom one of their priorities. To do this, he said, it is important to pay attention to the academic and geographical context in order to analyze the existing cultural offer and what it can bring.
He MUNrecognized, He is little known to the citizens of Pamplona and Navarre.which, he says, is because it is a museum that is only a few years old and is located in a building that is perhaps too imposing.
“The dialogue that the museum maintains with the university and the community “It exists but I think it can be explored further,” he shared, assuring that they will study if they can “improve access and make it more visitor-friendly,” thus finding a way to invite citizens to enjoy it and make it “feel like their own.”
Within the The advantages of MUNmentioned that it is a university museum, a model that is almost non-existent in Spain and that is characterized by its “commitment to knowledge, and that, according to him, it is the obligation of a center like this to raise fundamental questions such as What is art and what is it for?
It also has nearly 25,000 works and one of the the largest collections in the history of photography in Spainwhich joins an environment like Navarre in which “there is a cultural offer but not so much” and therefore there is the possibility of being “a museum not only for the university but for the whole community.”
Pérez-Barreiro has dedicated a large part of his professional career to the police stationa field that must be based on “working with the public” and, he commented, there is sometimes a false perception that the important thing is to have brilliant ideas thinking only of oneself as an audience.
“To have a beautiful challenge, especially with contemporary art “which many people are wary of,” he said, acknowledging that many times no effort is made to meet these needs and calling for a curatorship that is “more open to dialogue, more understanding of visitors and more generous.”
It was shown also favorable to working to find new audiences since it “forces you to position yourself before the other” and “if one does it well, the existing audience will respond as well.”
