El Blog

By making a choice of the most representative images of the work we have done in the museum this year that is coming to a close, we ourselves have been able to visualise the reach and quantity of the projects in which the whole team has been working! With a relatively small team a lot of work has been carried out.  Whether it has been good or not is up to you to decide.  The rate of participation in the multiple activities organised, plus the more than one million visitors we have received, plus some awards 🙂 indicate that we are heading in the right direction, but we still have to do more and better.  Your comments and criticisms help us to improve so that the museum becomes a space of more and more knowledge open to debate and participation.

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1.- The team of preventive conservation and restoration of the museum checking the state of the pieces that make up the exhibition “Picasso looks at Degas”. Thanks to this show, it has been possible in Barcelona to see some of the masterpieces of the French artist, such as L’‘Absinthe, Combing the Hair or the sculpture of Degas that appears in the photograph: Little Dancer Aged Fourteen.

2.- Works of the new building being constructed in the Plaça Sabartés. This enlargement, that has been going on throughout the year and it’s about to be completed in February 2011, will be home to the Centre of Knowledge and Research of the museum.

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3.- The drawings filled the neighbourhood of la Ribera in the first edition of “Big Draw. La festa del dibuix” (“The Drawing Party”). More than three thousand people of all ages participated in the different activities and workshops that were organised throughout the day in the different points of the museum and neighbourhood. Photo: Jordi Mota.

4.- Works of the museum ready to travel. This year, in accordance with the loans policy, the museum has been present in 24 exhibitions all over the world, from the USA to Australia, with a total of 99 pieces.

5.- Setting up the exhibition of Rodney Graham. Jointly organized with the MACBA, this exhibition has brought the work of a still active artist to the rooms of the museum for the first time.

6.- Students from the new Postgraduate course in Museum Management during a visit to the museum:  Jointly organized by the Picasso Museum and the IDEC (Institute for Continuing Education) of the Pompeu Fabra University, the course has an eminently practical focus, so that the students can get to know the multiple tasks and processes that ensure that a museum works well. Photo: Albert Forns.

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7.- The exhibition “Secret images. Picasso and Japanese erotic prints” (November 2009 – February 2010) was awarded by the ACCA (The Catalan Association of Art Critics) in the section of Exhibitions of historic research.  The director of the museum and the curators of the exhibition receive the award. Photo: Teresa M. Sala.

8.- The exhibition “Picasso versus Rusiñol”, explained to visitors by its curator, Eduard Vallès. The show let you explore and contrast the artistic links that Picasso established with the work and figure of the painter Santiago Rusiñol. Photo: Jordi Mota.

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9.- Covers of the first edition of two new collections, Abstract and Focus. This two publishing line offers a synthetic and visual view of the temporary exhibitions (Abstract) and a monographic about the works of the collection object of the displays (Focus).

10.- Projects of the setting up of exhibitions for the series of Las Meninas, carried out by students from the l’Escola d’Art i Disseny Deià (The Deià School of Art and Design).  The students of this centre produced different proposals of ephemeral architecture to renew the presentation of the collection, based on their fresh, alive and critical view. The results of this collaboration can be seen in the publication Las Meninas # Sèrie oberta.

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11.- Music in the galleries: a group of students from the ESMUC (The Superior School of Music of Catalonia) have composed various musical creations inspired by the works of the museum.  The pieces were interpreted in situ. Photo: Jordi Mota.

12.-More music in the exhibition rooms: musicians from the Conservatori del Liceu interpreted pieces by Erik Satie to accompany the visit to the exhibition “Picasso versus Rusiñol”. With this concert, which lasted six hours, the aim was to pay homage to the French composer, a great friend of the two painters of the exhibition. Photo: Jordi Mota.

13.- The project developed on the Social Media by the Museu Picasso received the prize “Best of the Web”, awarded by an international jury within the framework of the  Museums and the Web Conference.

14.- With the display “Science and Charity revealed”, the Picasso Museum started a series of small scale exhibitions that will study some of the pieces of the collection in-depth.  In the first proposal one of the fundamental pieces from the formative period of Picasso was chosen, Science and Charity, which was analysed by means of giga-photographs, x-rays and analysis of pigments. Photo: Jordi Mota.

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15.- One of the winners of the competition of short stories “Picasso in Writing” receives the prize from the writer Màrius Serra; in the background is the director of the museum, Pepe Serra. Participants of all ages were invited to write a short story inspired by one of the six Works of the collection proposed.  The Result:  more than 300 stories received that gave an original and unusual vision of the works. Photo: Jordi Mota.

16.- Approach to the world of photography by students from an institute close to the museum, in a studio adapted specially for the occasion.  This activity formed part of the first Project of The Education Department of the Museu Picasso  for opening the museum to the residents of the neighbourhood of la Ribera.

17.- Nina Simon in the Museu Picasso . The author of “The Participatory Museum” proposed different formulas for boosting the participation of the visitors and to turn the museums into spaces for encounter and experimentation in a talk open to the public and led a workshop for professionals. Some days later, the directors of the  Museums and the Web Conference, David Bearman and Jennifer Trant, explained the challenges and virtues of the presence of the museums on the Internet.  Both interventions were included in the mini-cycle “The social function of the museum: two approaches”.

18.- Performance of Lilibeth Cuenca. The performance formed part of the cycle “How we see ourselves, how they see us” that invited four women artists to reflect and exhibit their most personal vision about the representation and the role of the female figure in art.

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19.- Inaugural session of the Reading Club. Led by Jordi Carrión, this participative proposal aimed to look in depth at the figure and work of Picasso by means of the reading of a selection of texts that evoke his personal universe. Photo: Jordi Mota.

20.- The snow arrives at the Picasso Museum. On the 8th March there was a very heavy snowfall in Barcelona that covered the whole of the city and left us with some unusual winter prints of the gothic courtyards of the museum.

21.- Choreography of Sol Picó in front of the work Combing the Hair by Edgar Degas, in a session of the  Seen by… dedicated to the exhibition “Picasso looks at Degas”. The prestigious dancer used the universal language of dance to dialogue with the artworks of a painter who turned ballet into one of the fundamental themes of his trajectory. Photo: Jordi Mota.

The museum team wishes you all a happy and social New Year! http://goo.gl/hS1vI

Conxa Rodà
Project management

With the collaboration of Martí Casas, carrying out practice from the Masters Degree in the Management of Cultural Heritage, University of Barcelona

21 images of what happened in 2009 at the Picasso Museum