Opinion
Present and future. Gaudí and MNAC
Between new discoveries about the architect and the transformation of museums, Barcelona opens a debate on how to reread the past and imagine the cultural institutions of tomorrow.
Rethink, reread, reinterpret. Open new lines of research, review established readings and generate spaces for debate where knowledge is never considered closed. Culture needs this critical gaze, capable of returning to what we believe to be known in order to discover new questions. Barcelona is currently experiencing two expressions of this same will, seemingly different but deeply connected: the Gaudí International Congress, in La Pedrera, and the process of transformation of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), in Montjuïc.
The congress dedicated to Antoni Gaudí has once again put on the table the relevance of an architect who still challenges conventional interpretations. New research, shared analyses and contributions from various disciplines have contributed to broadening the knowledge of his work. The discovery of unpublished drawings is particularly significant proof of this. Even in such a studied figure, the past continues to hold questions and materials capable of modifying or enriching what we knew. Gaudí is therefore not a closed figure in history, but a territory open to new readings.
In Montjuïc, the MNAC faces another challenge, equally necessary: thinking about what a museum should be in the present and what role it should assume in the future. The transformation of the institution cannot be limited to architectural, organizational or exhibition issues. It involves reviewing the stories that build the collections, the ways of relating to the public and the museum's capacity to respond to social, cultural and technological changes. A museum is not only a space that preserves and exhibits heritage; it is also a place from which a society looks at itself, questions itself and imagines itself.
This debate will have a second chapter in November, with a series of conversations that brings together museum directors from around the world to reflect on the new futures of these institutions. The meeting offers an opportunity to compare experiences, share models and question ideas that have long defined the museum function. In a time of profound transformations, thinking about the museum means going beyond daily management and asking ourselves what relationship it wants to establish with the public, what knowledge it wants to produce and what voices it should incorporate into its stories.
Gaudí and the MNAC thus represent two ways of addressing the same need: reviewing the legacy received to keep it alive. In one case, research allows us to discover unknown aspects of a work that still challenges us; in the other, institutional reflection seeks new ways of preserving, interpreting and sharing heritage. Both historical research and museum renovation require curiosity, a critical spirit and the ability to listen.
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