bartomeu marí

The Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA) is expanding into the nearby Àngels Square in the heart of the historic neighbourhood Raval. On 17^th July the museum unveiled the details of its future plans, which are designed to increase the flow of visitors to the art centre. These include increased exhibition spaces and the expansion of the existing MACBA Study Centre. The project is estimated to cost a total of €2 million, 1.5 million of which will be provided by Barcelona City Council, and it is hoped that this will increase the number of visitors to the museum by 15% per year.

MACBA and CaixaForum unveiled their first joint exhibit on Thursday, which shows one of the most important contemporary art collections in southern Europe. The project is called 'Art dos punts. Barcelona viu l'art contemporani' (Art in two sites. Barcelona is moved by contemporary art) and contains a selection of 400 works by 125 artists with a focus on modern and post-modern art. The collections of both institutions contain up to 6,000 pieces. The Director of MACBA, Bartomeu Marí, explained that the aim of the project is to create a story “that challenges recent history and puts us in a better position to understand the contemporary world.”

The new exhibition of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), ‘Critical Episodes (1957-2011)’, shows the last decades’ deep and historical changes through art. This exhibition is the result of a new arrangement of the MACBA’s collection. It displays about 200 works by 64 artists such as Eduardo Chillida, Hans Haacke, Mike Kelley, Antoni Tàpies, Jaume Plensa, Susana Solano and Oriol Vilapuig, amongst others. MACBA’s Director, Bartomeu Marí, has highlighted that this new exhibition “brings out new works and others that were displayed a long time ago”. It also proves that MACBA’s collection is already “rich, mature and diverse”.