museum

The Catalan Government has confirmed that a framework agreement has been reached with the project's promoters, with the green light from Barcelona’s City Council. However the final details are still pending negotiation. No public funds from Catalan institutions will be allocated. The Catalan President, Artur Mas, will sign the agreement during his trip to Russia, scheduled for between Wednesday and Friday. Barcelona’s Hermitage will very likely occupy three old warehouses located at the city port, in front of the beach and the luxury hotel W. The architectural project was released two weeks ago and will fully renovate the old warehouses, which will have their own dock and three floors, including a basement. The Hermitage has already opened other centres outside Saint Petersburg, in Amsterdam, Ferrara and Kazan.

A journey around the world through art. This is the aim of the new museum in Barcelona, the Museum of World Cultures, which will open its doors in June 2014 in two gothic palaces in front of the Picasso Museum. This new cultural offer in the capital of Catalonia will host art pieces from non-western collections of the Ethnological Museum of Barcelona and private collections, mainly from Folch’s collection which was given to the City Council in 2011. The Museum of World Cultures will display about 700 pieces from Asia, Africa, America and Oceania in permanent and temporary exhibitions. It will also host an educational area. The museum will occupy an area of 2,100 square meters and will cost approximately €5 million.

The Fundació Joan Miró, located in the Catalan capital, unveils a temporary exhibition called “Explosion! The legacy of Jackson Pollock”, which shows the influence Pollock’s works had on later artists. The temporary exhibition is made up of 70 works from 35 different artists, such as Andy Warhol, Lynda Benglis, Shozo Simamoto, Yoko Ono and Jackson Pollock himself. The exhibition is co-produced by Barcelona’s Miró Foundation and the Moderna Museet from Stockholm. It will run until 24th February 2013.

Located in the centre of Catalonia, the area of Penedès is known for its high quality wine and cava. Due to the long tradition in this region of the production of these drinks and the growing presence of wine tourism, it was decided to strengthen the offers of this sector. On this occasion, after two and a half years of building work, the old Vinseum - Wine Culture Museum of Catalonia - has been reopened with new exhibits in a new location: the Royal Palace of Vilafranca del Penedès. However, this is not just a museum of the production of wine; it is based on wine as a cultural, social, historical and scientific phenomenon.

The old Fabra i Coats industrial complex in Barcelona hosts a new centre for Contemporary Art in Catalonia in one of its buildings. The industrial complex is also hosting the ‘Creation Factory’, a socialization space for artists, where they can work on new projects. The Contemporary Art centre was unveiled with the first exhibition called ‘Això no és una exposició d’art, tampoc’ (‘This is not an art exhibition, either’) based on ‘performance’. The whole project, which at the moment uses 600 square metres on the ground floor, will occupy a total of 2,450 square metres of exhibition space - three floors in the front wing of the old factory.

The permanent collection of the Can Framis Museum, located in a functionalist venue built three years ago, reopened its doors this Saturday. The museum, run by the Fundació Vila Casas, has restructured its permanent collection of contemporary paintings originating from the 1960’s onwards. The works are by various artists born or living in Catalonia and includes 45 new paintings, 20 of which are new acquisitions.

The Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (Catalonia’s National Museum of Art) is considering changing its name to include ‘Barcelona’. The Museum Director, Pepe Serra, wants to better explain the Museum to a global audience and considers using the “Barcelona brand” as a superior way of raising the gallery’s status. Also he believes the collections of Romanesque art, which are considered exceptional, have not been sufficiently exploited on an international level. The Museum Director also announced that despite the crisis, they will open up “many more areas for free”.

The information centre at Ascó Nuclear Power Plant in Catalonia has won one of the prestigious International Architecture Awards, organised by the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Arquitecture and Design. Ascó’s building, located in Southern Catalonia and designed by the Catalan architects Olga Felip and Josep Camps, was one of 81 projects from 21 countries to receive the prize. The jury highlighted the incorporation of the centre with the nuclear power plant, and its harmony with the surrounding landscape. The materials selected by the architects are designed to emulate day and night.

The eruption of the volcano Vesuvius destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, amongst others. However, the studies of the remnants have allowed historians to reconstruct the lives of these cities in an exhibition now hosted in l’Escala (Catalonia). The exhibition comes from Italy and uses the latest technologies (scenographic reconstructions, multisensorial effects, virtual interfaces, holograms, 3D technology, interactive systems and a unique 3D film with tridimensional sound and special effects) to enable visitors to walk and live in Pompeii, Herculaneum, Baiae, Stabiae and Capri. For example, they can visit the Nymphaeum of Baia which is seven metres below ground. The exposition will be open until 9th September.

Catalan and international painting from 1870 to 1970 will interact to show the relation between people and landscape. The exhibition ‘Landscapes of light, dream landscapes. From Gauguin to Delvaux’ kicks off the activities at the Espai Carmen Thyssen, in Sant Feliu de Guíxols Monastry, on the Costa Brava. This will be the first of many exhibitions in this Catalan coastal town, said Carmen Thyssen. In fact the Baroness and the town’s City Council are planning to build a permanent Thyssen Museum in the town. Thyssen also stated that it would be “wonderful” to show more paintings in her collection at Catalonia’s National Art Museum’s expansion.

The ‘Gaudí Experiència’ offers the visitor, in 9 different languages, an interactive experience, diving into the work of the Catalan genius who designed the Sagrada Família, La Pedrera, the Casa Batlló and the Parc Güell. In fact, the new museum is located next to the famous park. It shows how nature’s elements including cypress trees, water and the Montserrat Mountain inspired Gaudí.

About 3,200 square meters of native vegetation cover the frontage of the building under criteria of sustainability. The garden, 185 meters long and 18 meters tall is pioneer in the use of wastewater for grass irrigation.

Set in the Gothic district, the museum is designed to explain to its visitors the secrets of marihuana and in fact it clearly advocates for the legalization of this drug. In the inauguration day, Duch businessman Ben Dronkers was joined by Virgin owner Richard Branson, who thinks that marihuana can help the country out of the crisis

The Púbol Castle, located near the Costa Brava, reopened its doors on March 15th after being closed for a year. The house of Salvador Dalí in Cadaqués, North of the Costa Brava, re-opened on February 12th, after its usual winter break.

‘The Clothed Maja’, ‘the Quitasol’, ‘the Puppet’ or the ‘Witches Flight’ are some of the canvases included in the largest retrospective exhibition on Goya organised in Barcelona in the last 35 years. Held at the Catalan capital’s CaixaForum, the exhibition ‘Goya. Lights and Shadows’ is organised by the social work foundation of the Catalan bank La Caixa and the Prado Museum. 96 pieces of the Aragon master’s work, including oil paintings, drawings and picture cards, will be on display for free until May 24th.