Es Baluard Museu d’Art Contemporani de Palma advances in its function of developing the Collection based on its acquisitions policy (purchase, deposit and donation) with the contribution of the Board of Trustees of the Fundació Es Baluard, as well as artists, collectors and entities, together with the acquisitions of works that the Fundació carries out on an annual basis.
In this way, the Museum reinforces its patrimonial function this year with the incorporation of a total of 38 works, 1 as a donation, 9 in deposit and 28 purchases, made by 29 artists, of which 11 are women and 18 men .
The works, made between 1916 and 2020, that become part of the Collection are by the following artists: Toni Amengual, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Miriam Cahn, Miguel Ángel Campano, Lluis Claramunt, Mounir Fatmi, Esther Ferrer, Rafa Forteza, Bel Fullana, Lara Fluxà, Daniel García Andújar, Susy Gómez, Petrit Halilaj, Peter Halley, Rafel Joan, Teresa Margolles, Max, Laura Marte, Joan Morey, Claudia Peña Salinas, Albert Pinya, Marta Pujades, Bernardí Roig, Bartomeu Seguí, José Ángel Sintes, Joaquín Sorolla, Martine Syms, Kemang Wa Lehulere and Ian Waelder.
The selection, which includes different media such as painting, video, photography, installation, sculpture, drawing and graphic work – highlighting the incorporation of the comic genre in the Collection for the first time – has been carried out by the Acquisitions Commission, meeting on September 25, and approved by the Executive Committee of the Fundació Es Baluard Museu on October 8.
According to the Director of the Museum, Imma Prieto, “the new acquisitions of the Fundació Es Baluard Museu are more than important. On the one hand, we are breaking with a dynamic that has accompanied Es Baluard Museu. We are expanding the Collection through purchases, understood as a matter of priority, and not only through donations or deposits. And on the other hand, first of all we support the artistic sector, which is especially important in this year’s context, but we are also helping to safeguard history”.
“Why do we affirm this forcefully? Because caring for heritage is caring for memory and identity, conserving heritage is synonymous with history. One of the functions of museums, unlike art centers, is to conserve and expand heritage. If not, in a few years, when we look back we will only find silence. It should be remembered that culture is universal and that it is written from heritage and the studies that are generated. For this reason, Es Baluard Museu also works in the investigation, study and writing of history. And we hope to strengthen this practice in collaboration with researchers, academic staff and historians”, she adds.
Different galleries and entities and a total of 300 artists have participated in this process, among which 195 are of Balearic origin -by birth, residents or linked to the territory- (65%) and 105 are national or international (35%). Regarding gender, 160 are men (53.3%) and 140 are women (46.7%). In total, this year the Fundació Es Baluard Museu has received 168 proposals, of which 114 have been submitted by artists (67.9%), 13 by individuals (7.7%), 40 by galleries of art (23.8%) and 1 by an institution (0.6%).
In this sense, the director recalls that “this year’s committee has not been a contest or an open call. It is the same call that has been held every year at the Museum since its inception. The big difference has been the budget: for years this has been 0 euros, two years ago it was increased to 5,000 euros, then 10,000 euros, and this year we had risen to 15,000 euros. Finally, thanks to the support of the Board, we have been able to count on a decent amount that allows us to support the sector as for our part, we are going to fight so that this is not an exception caused by Covid-19. We must defend artists and galleries in order to create a stable and enriching artistic fabric between all of us”.
Es Baluard Museu Acquisitions Commission is made up of a representative of each patron of the Fundació Es Baluard Museu, four professionals from the art world who stand out for their careers and knowledge of the sector, and the Museum’s Director and Head of Collection. In addition, this year the Museum has had an increase in the budget for the purchase of works of art, from 15,000 to 172,913 euros.
This increase arises from the support of the Delegation of the Presidency for Culture of the Government of the Balearic Islands, which contributes 140,000 euros to the Museum’s acquisitions, and the Department of Culture, Heritage and Language Policy of the Consell de Mallorca, which also extends it with 15,000 euros. The remaining budget of 17,913 euros comes from the original acquisitions item generated from the general budgets of Es Baluard Museu.
In the committee have participated Francesca Tugores Truyol, representing the Government of the Balearic Islands, Gabriel Pons i Homar, Consell de Mallorca, Aina Bauzà, from the Palma City Council, Margalida Tur Català, from the Fundació d’Art Serra, the Director of Es Baluard Museu, Imma Prieto, and the Head of Collection, Soad Houman. As for professionals from the art world, it has had two new recruits: Yolanda Romero, Head of Conservation at Banco de España, and Tanya Barson, MACBA’s Chief Curator. On the other hand, Neus Cortés, Cultural Manager specialized in contemporary art, and Enrique Juncosa, independent Curator and former Director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, also participated.
With these new additions, the Es Baluard Museu d’Art Contemporani de Palma Collection reaches 800 works of art. The main artists and movements that have converged and converge in the Balearic Islands, placed in relation to the national and international artistic contexts, represent a rich, complex and continuously evolving corpus that took shape since the first presentation of the Collection in 2004 when the Museum first opened.