"Cultural institutions must play an important role in the tourist narrative"
The success of tourism, and its management, in the world's most attractive big cities is going through a particularly complex period. According to Pepe Serra, the director of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), cultural institutions, such as major museums, play "a very important role in mediating, explaining the city and understanding the place".
04-12-2019 | Interviews
Pepe Serra
Director del Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya
He goes on to point out that "You'll never find the disturbances seen at times in the streets, including anti-social behaviour, inside a museum." "Barcelona's cultural skin is the mainstay that guarantees tourists feel welcome on arrival and during their stay. It would be highly beneficial for the city to commit itself more to culture."
Mr Serra believes that culture "is the city's main factor for attracting visitors", along with its good climate, and services provided by its hotels and restaurants. Barcelona's rich culture and heritage are the reasons why people from around the world come back and visit. This means that the city's cultural institutions must play a "very important" role in the tourist narrative of Barcelona, a "fundamentally cultural and creative city." Half the visitors to the MNAC are local and the other 50% come from around the world. Serra emphasises the fact that "we are really interested in tourists" and considers it valuable to have "the point of view of someone from the outside" and to establish a dialogue with other cultures, people from different religions and with a diverse iconographic baggage.
Serra says that Mount Montjuïc (which, in addition to the MNAC, is also home to the Fundació Miró, the Mies Van der Rohe Pavilion, the Teatre Lliure and Mercat de les Flors, among others) "is not yet part of the city" because it doesn't enjoy the same conditions as the rest of Barcelona in terms of accessibility, safety, lighting and places to shelter from the sun and rain. "We still have to bring the mountain closer to the city."
The MNAC has the world's largest collection of Romanesque art and the most important holdings of Catalonia's home-grown art nouveau, modernisme, including the city's biggest permanent collection of works by Antoni Gaudí. In summer 2021, the MNAC will be organising a major exhibition, in association with the Musée d'Orsay, which will look afresh at this towering figure of world architecture.
Major encyclopaedic museums like the MNAC, which start with Greek coins dating back more than 2,000 years, and end with Tàpies, allow us to "talk about everything and question everything" creating a "lively discussion" with visitors "with many different narratives."