Manuel Segadi, new director of the Reina Sofia Museum

The mystery that has been circulating in artistic circles in Spain in recent days has been solved this afternoon when Ministry of Culture and Sport I have reported it Manuel Szeged is the person chosen by its owner, Mikel Esetato direct the great pioneer of contemporary Spanish art, the Reina Sofia Museum. The appointment will be submitted this Tuesday to the Council of Ministers for approval. Iceta Segade chose from a shortlist of candidates given to him by the Museum’s Board of Trustees. three He was the one with the best score.

Galician art historian and director (La Coruña, 1977) will take charge of Reina Sofia after Almost a decade of success at the helm of CA2M, the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Community of Madrid which is based in Mostols and which has received the support of the public and critics from the Madrid periphery. It was in 2015 when he took the helm of an institution that has carved out a place for itself in the art world thanks to exhibitions on topics such as music (with an active concert programme), humor and textile art, vogging (a dance inspired by the poses in fashion magazines that led to balls at the Museum) or feminism.

Replaces Segade in the post Manuel Borja Filel, a charismatic and distinguished figure of Spanish Contemporary Art who has been responsible for its management for the past fifteen years. A priori, he did not have such a distinct ideological stamp in his work as that of his predecessor, who opted for anti-colonial, feminist and environmental rhetoric in his review of the permanent collection and introduced indigenous art and other art forms to museum productions traditionally excluded from contemporary art. His departure amid controversy and the subject of strong media pressure Which he attributed to the right-wing and far-right campaign, occurred last January, after the exhaustion of the two extensions that allowed him to extend his term.

🗞️ The Minister of Culture and Sports will propose tomorrow Manuel Szeged in the Cabinet (#CMin) as the new director of the @ Reina Sofia Museum

✅ He was the candidate with the highest score during the selection process https://t.co/Gv5hgrQLtA pic.twitter.com/vjH2Afaxiw

– Ministry of Culture and Sports (culturagob) June 5, 2023

The candidate selected won over ten candidates, the majority of whom were women and foreigners. By comparison, in 2007, the year Borja Filil won office for the first time, he fielded nearly twice as many candidates, only one of whom was a foreigner. It is also Twenty years younger than his predecessor and one of the candidates under 50, which means making room for this generational change By renewing the ownership of the museum.

The newly appointed, who on Monday expressed his great desire to take on the task and offer “the best the Reina Sofia Museum is able to offer,” publicly thanked the Committee of Experts, the Royal Board of Trustees and the Ministry of Culture for his decision and paid his respects to the rest of the candidates whose names were known in the days. past. “It seems that there were many people who liked it and I think it is unfortunate that the confidentiality guaranteed by the rules of the operation was not respected,” he said.

He has also confirmed that his appointment is also “the pride of the dos de Mayo art center museum which I am still managing”. “In the Madrid community of Móstoles there is one of the most important museums of contemporary art in Spain -and he added-. I think that Khiari demonstrates once again that in contemporary culture, what seems secondary or peripheral makes an essential contribution“.

Mikel Eseta, who congratulated the chosen one this afternoon, highlighted the independence that guided the electoral process, and also responded to Criticism from the Popular Party, which had previously requested that the appointment be postponed until after the 23J elections. He stated categorically that “to delay it would have meant the politicization of the appointment”.

Specialized in Juan Muñoz

Segade holds a degree in Art History from the University of Santiago de Compostela and completed a postgraduate degree in Cultural and Visual Studies at the University of Leeds. He specializes in business Juan Munozwho has curated two retrospectives this season in Madrid on the occasion of the artist’s 70th birthday.

Between 2005 and 2006 he was the content coordinator at Metronom Fundació Rafael Tous d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona. Between 2007 and 2009 he was the curator of the Galician Center for Contemporary Art in Santiago de Compostela Throughout his career, he has collaborated with organizations such as lit home (Madrid), Dart Center La Panera (Lleida) or the Mossack Lyon.

Between 2012 and 2014 he was the curator of Openingone of the co-ordinated divisions of Arch. For two decades, he has been busy organizing numerous exhibitions in national and international institutions. He also has behind him a career as a teacher in different countries.

Related news

He has published articles, catalogs and books thereof End of Narcissus Centuryfrom Melusina Publishing House (2008) or Infinite typesFrom Espai d’Art Contemporani de Castellón (2014). He is also a founding member of European Art Society.

The main challenges that his administration will face will be obtaining Staff increase For a museum that suffers from a great shortage of guards who maintain its limited activity currently Review the organization’s structure and its own definition and the Musographic Project, marked by the previous administration.