Jordi Mayoral invites us to visit his gallery on Consell de Cent, in the middle of Barcelona's classic gallery street, but with an extension in Paris and also an eye on history. The story of Galería Mayoral links the best of Catalan avant-garde art with the possibilities of becoming a reference art city in the future, an objective that for its director involves having a unique and dedicated fair.
And to connect with what we already did: in the 30s, art was made against fascism, and now the far-right (today more "banal," he tells us) is already warning of its growth. Will artistic creativity also warn?
--- We are right on Consell de Cent. In a gallery. Is what has happened with the galleries on this mythical street so serious?
--- Simply, cities are not static: they are alive. The phenomenon of galleries leaving the center because they cannot afford the rent is a global phenomenon; it happens to a greater or lesser extent everywhere. Barcelona is a city that has historically been built through guilds, but this is evolving. Now you see galleries going to Trafalgar Street, others to Enric Granados... It doesn't have to be negative; it has that point of a living city. If the question is whether the guild will disappear, I think we still have many years ahead.
--- But people here don't buy. They say.
--- There is a very clear opportunity for improvement, let's put it that way. Not having an art fair in Barcelona makes people lose the habit of having art in their conversations. It's as intangible as that. In Madrid, Basel, or New York, since they have them, this makes visiting galleries a routine act, an ordinary and normal commercial aspect. Here we are clear about museums, but not galleries, due to not having a strong art fair. The responsibility lies partly with the guild and partly with the citizens or administrations.
--- But there are smaller fairs.
--- We have the Gallery Weekend, which is a great idea, in mid-September; or Manifesta, a contemporary art festival, which arrives this year... But a big fair has a spirit of buying. Notice that now people, when they enter a gallery, only come to look. A festival or an event is ephemeral, but a strong fair would always be permanent. It would be a meeting point, with the capacity for quick decision-making, and it would create excitement on both sides. People buy out of illusion, out of enthusiasm, out of what they fancy, not out of any vital need. I'm not talking about replicating any Arco, but about having an indigenous fair model.
--- How is it that Barcelona did not retain Arco?
--- The State bet on Madrid.
--- The famous co-capitality.
--- And I have to say that Arco has been a success. And I also have to say that from Catalonia, that priority was not given either. What ends up becoming a systemic problem, the ball gets bigger and bigger. With the added problem that there are already many fairs in the world: the market is somewhat saturated.
--- Difficult to stand out.
--- It's also difficult for them outside of here. Now Europeans go to Basel, Americans to Miami, Asians to Hong Kong... There is less and less capacity to have the sensation of novelty or exclusivity, singularity. It also happens with auction houses, with museums... Globalization does these things.
--- You are in Barcelona and Paris.
--- Five years ago we decided to have a gallery in the capital of freedom, where so many Catalan artists went, where, in fact, all the important ones went. Now we have updated it. We touch on everything from Dalí to Picasso, Miró, Tàpies, Chillida, Barceló... Paris changed the lives of all of them: so we collect that and tell the story. And I warn you that in Paris, gallery owners have the same problems, the same pros and cons, the rental prices, etc. Perhaps after Brexit it has regained more prominence. In short: we have a small gallery, but a great showcase.
--- And you are also at Art Basel.
--- In all three, yes. Basel is a fairly meritocratic organization, it's hard to get accepted. It has taken years to earn our place, it's like entering a Michelin star category. You experience a leap in terms of reputation, validation... and sales.
--- And there you can stand out.
--- History weighs on us, fortunately: in Basel we teach this, our legacy. No other gallery in the world is dedicated to highlighting these artists. Think about one thing: in Europe, there have been few long dictatorships. One, especially. And the Pavilion of the Spanish Republic in Paris was a precedent, a warning, a premonition of the Second World War and a cry against fascism. And it took a whole generation to re-boost this consciousness; only from '58 onwards did Chillida, Saura, Millares emerge... There were 20 years of darkness, from Picasso's Guernica or Miró's The Reaper. And those metaphors that symbolized the dream of a generation, that of the thirties, returned in '58 with great radicalism. And, what's more, Francoism bought it!
--- Bought it?
--- It's twenty years: the UN extends its arms to Franco and the Francoist rulers were astute. Windows had to be opened. Meanwhile, we have Picasso in Paris, Miró in internal exile, Tàpies drawing cracks in the walls, Dalí driving us crazy... A sea and mountain, a judgment and rapture that very clearly defines Catalan society.
"What we need is a greater need to radiate, to generate creative movement, and normally this comes from the margins"--- And we can link it to the current moment, of course.
--- Now there is a very similar anguish. We have the wave of feminism that emerged after the first Trump, we have the artistic anguish created after the fall of the Berlin Wall... Think that now, in contemporary art, we already have more women than men on the scene! And, as far as the far right is concerned, I find it an empty disruption. It has no depth, as we are seeing. I can only say that, artistically, good things also come out of bad. We are at a moment of impasse. As if we had to get over a fever.
--- Now you have that fabulous exhibition of Torres Garcia, another who suffered a dictatorship.
--- Torres Garcia also summarizes order and outburst: he makes you Novecentista, neoclassical murals for the Salón de Sant Jordi and then he also makes you what we exhibit in the gallery. As Picasso, Miró or Dalí did, he first develops the canon and then his overflowing creativity leads him to explore new worlds. All of them go beyond the canon, they have talent but then they have ideas. Torres Garcia too, and in this case, as you can see, just as Duchamp turned the urinal (and changed 20th century art), Torres Garcia turns the world map for us.
--- They are intelligible works.
--- That the work is understood is already much of what one can aspire to, but the question is how long it takes us, the public, to understand a work. We all look, but sometimes the message arrives late or does not arrive. We live like this, sharing space with the works of people advanced in their time. And that's how we progress! Think that Torres Garcia in the 20s already made an anti-colonial discourse at the Venice Biennale. A true pioneer!
--- What problem does Barcelona have with contemporary art?
--- Barcelona had the miracle of Picasso, Dalí or Miró. Our dream team, groups of geniuses who also in football coincide in a single team rarely in history. They generated very strong creative collectives, as happens for example with gastronomy. And it also happened with literature, with architecture, or even with periods of great political effervescence. These are things that happen as a result of a moment, and I admit that in art this has not happened to us for a long time. Now we have the centers of irradiation of great artists in China, the United States, London... But I must say that here a strong artistic debate is growing more and more, around topics such as migratory flows, mestizo art, anti-globalization... The approach to worlds of less comfort can favor us, in this sense.
--- Look in the margins.
--- Margins are often found within, too. Remember Ocaña, whom we also exhibited here recently: Andalusia, transsexuality long before what today seems transgressive. What we need is a greater need to radiate, to generate creative movement. Normally this comes from the margins, geographical or spiritual, and ends up becoming the center of reference.