The Barcelona Culture Institute is a public body set up by Barcelona City Council to support and promote cultural activities in the city, including the programme of events at La Virreina Image Centre at Palau de la Virreina.
In 2008, La Virreina exhibition centre began a new stage as an Image Centre. Its programme has since included photography, audiovisual works, election broadcasts, book publishing, literary festivals, talks, digital documentation and expanded literature in the age of the image, amongst others.
La Virreina Image Centre aims to explore the notion of the image as knowledge and also as a way of sparking new cultural experiences. Its key mission is to forge its own identity within the network of spaces in Barcelona, in terms of its lines of programmes and its contents and formats, as well as working closely with other centres for visual creation.
La Virreina Image Centre offers two spaces of exhibition :
260 square meters at the ground floor (Virreina Lab)
2’800 square meters at the first floor.
Llucia Homs, actual Director of the Cultural Sectors Promotion as well as Director of the Virreina Image Centre, presents the organization of the Virreina Image Centre for Le Journal de la Photographie.
Llucia, you arrive at the Virreina Image Centre in 2011 and replace Carles Guerra leaving to the MACBA as chief curator. What kind of decisions, organization did you start with ?
Well, I inherited an organization which was based on Carles Guerra creativity and impossible to follow up without him in the team. As the Virreina Image Centre never aimed to build a private collection, I decided then to apply for an organization without a chief curator. Every exhibition has its own curator.
You started with a great retrospective of Claude Cahun which was organized by Jeu de Paume, Paris, and coproduced with the Virreina Image Centre, Barcelona, and The Art Institute of Chicago. The show lasted more than three months at the Virreina from October 2011 until February 2012. How many exhibitions do you schedule per year ?
Well, I usually schedule 3 exhibitions per year at the first floor exhibition room which is very wide and welcome large format retrospectives. We also have an exhibition room at the ground floor which is a kind of “Photography Laboratory” for short term and smaller format exhibitions. I use to schedule 4 or 5 exhibitions per year in this room.
Long term and large format exhibitions are all coproduced with national or international partners…
Yes, we nowadays cannot avoid coproduction schemes and this is much better for the promotion of photography.
Culture in Spain depends on three public administrations : national, regional and local (city council). According to the 2010 national statistics, the global budget has decreased 150M€ but it seems that the local administration (city council) is investing more in culture. What happened with your budget between 2011 and 2013 ?
We lost some 15% or 20% but since Virreina houses The Barcelona Culture Institute as well, almost all its fixed costs are included in The Barcelona Culture Institute. The budget is then almost all dedicated to content.
Do you have obligations in the content with regard to the The Barcelona Culture Institute ?
No, not at all. and we combine national and international photography.
Do you have a specific program at the Virreina towards new talents ?
Yes, since 2011 La Virreina Centre de la Imatge hosts the PHOTO MEETING BARCELONA a programme of events which include photography portfolio viewings, slideshows, talks, chats over coffee, round-table discussions, meetings for professionals and public lectures where participants and those attending can share new experiences.
Something else about Spanish photography ?
Fortunately the economic and social crisis does not affect the creative strength of the country, photographers, curators and organizers are all highly stimulated.
Interview by Lola Fabry
Held over 26, 27 and 28 June 2013, the next OjodePez Photo Meeting Barcelona, organised by La Fábrica and La Virreina Image Centre inspired by OjodePez documentary photography magazine will feature portfolio viewings, lectures, photographers’ slideshows, conversations, and talks open to the public, where the invited guests and those signed up can share new experiences with the likes of James Nachtwey, Gervasio Sánchez, Samuel Aranda, Rena Effendi and Bernat Armangué.
The 2013 OjodePez Photo Meeting will focus on professionals working in situations of war and conflict. Over these three days, photographers, journalists and editors will talk about their work and the key role played by images and words in documenting and revealing what is happening.
Accreditation costs 60€, + portfolio lecture costs 150€ + workshop costs 140€
Palau de la Virreina
La Rambla, 99
08001 Barcelona
Spain
Téléphone :+34 933 01 77 75
