Art and knowledge for the common good, by Manuel Borja-Villel
Transforming the museum into a shared space
“The museum has obviously ceased to be one of those privileged institutions of the enlightened middle class where knowledge was preserved and history sanctioned.”
“The museum does not sanction, it is no longer the preceptor and neither is criticism. Those who sanction at present are the great collections, the great fortunes that curiously are often in the museums.”
“More than one person has seen Guernica through a selfie rather than directly.”
“We have the challenge of rethinking our institutions. I believe they are still absolutely basic; knowledge is basic, the exhibition is basic, the collection is basic, as is this other form of knowing.”
“We have to imagine the museum differently… it has to do with a museum where we clearly begin to think about what is common, in the sense that the works and knowledge belong to all and must generate a shared space.”
“Rethinking of our own notion of identity, of our own notion of how limits are generated, of how we write history, is another aspect that is fundamental today.”
“In the 21st century, the museum, as it was in the Middle Ages and in the 17th and 18th centuries, cannot be separated from the university, from knowledge.”
“This joint university-museum agreement to promote a bachelor’s degree in Fine Art forms part of this way of imagining institutions differently.”