Manuel Segade, proposed as the new director of the Reina Sofía Museum

He is the current director of the Dos de Mayo Art Center Museum (Móstoles), dependent on the Community of Madrid.

The Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, will refer tomorrow to the Council of Ministers the appointment of Manuel Segade as the new director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, as reported by the ministry.

Culture has announced that Segade has been the candidate that has obtained the highest score during the selection process.

The ministry ensures that the election procedure has "guaranteed publicity and competition based on the principles of merit and ability and suitability criteria." In addition, it reiterates that it has ensured the participation of the Royal Board of Trustees of the Museum with the advice of a Committee of experts and professionals from the world of culture and its management made up of five professionals of "renowned international prestige".

In this way, Segade becomes the seventh director of the Reina Sofía Museum since it was launched more than 30 years ago. Tomás Llorens, the first of the directors, María del Corral, José Guirao, Juan Manuel Bonet, Ana Martínez de Aguilar and Borja-Villel himself have been his predecessors.

Candidates began to attend interviews over the course of last week and, once this process concluded --last Friday--, the responsibility fell on a committee of experts, in charge of offering a shortlist of five candidates for the Board of Trustees.

The board of trustees held this Monday, June 5, has communicated those elected to the Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, who will present the final candidate to the Council of Ministers. Segade will be Borja-Villel's successor at the helm of the contemporary art gallery.

Segade (A Coruña, 1977), currently director of the Dos de Mayo Art Center Museum (Móstoles), dependent on the Community of Madrid, has been the candidate that has obtained the highest score and will be the proposal of Minister Iceta tomorrow in the Council of Ministers to occupy the position of director of the Reina Sofía Museum.

Segade has a degree in Art History from the University of Santiago de Compostela. He has served as programming coordinator for the Metronom space of the Rafael Tous d'Art Contemporani Foundation in Barcelona and as chief curator of the Galician Center for Contemporary Art (Santiago de Compostela).

In addition, he has curated for two decades (2003-2023) numerous exhibitions in national and international institutions. As a teacher, she has excelled in the university and institutional sphere with the organization of national and international courses and seminars.

He has been a Curatorial Tutor and advisor to the postgraduate program in curatorial training at the École du Magasin at the Magasin Center National des Arts Plastiques in Grenoble (France). In addition, he has served as a professor in university programs in South Africa and Brazil.

He has published, in addition, articles, catalogs and books, among which stand out, Narciso End of the Century, by Melusina publishing house (2008) or The Infinite Species, by Espai d'Art Contemporani de Castellón (2014). It also has several awards and mentions.

Among them, the Una Gota MAV distinction for the Dos de Mayo Art Center Museum (CA2M), for its commitment to gender equality (2022) and a special mention in the Outstanding Museum Practice Award from CIMAN to the CA2M Museum in 2021, for the projects developed in response to the pandemic in 2020.

Segade's election has come after complaints from the opposition about the inconvenience of holding this process before the elections. In fact, the PP campaign spokesman, Borja Sémper, has urged the Government to postpone the election process until after the general elections on July 23, since he understands that "a tortious use" of the institutions is being made Spaniards in the campaign.

"The Reina Sofía is one of the most important institutions in Spain and is in the process of selecting a new director," explained Sémper at a press conference, who gave the example of the museum as a sample of the use of institutions during electoral periods. and in a twisted way."

The popular politician recalled that this afternoon the board of trustees was called urgently for this election, something that he understands to be "perfectly legal but institutionally funny." "We want to ask the president of the Board of Trustees and Iceta that these types of decisions that singularly affect an institution of such relevance as our main Spanish contemporary art gallery be postponed until after the elections," he remarked.

RELEASE TO BORJA-VILLEL

Segade replaces Manuel Borja-Villel, who announced last January that he would not stand for re-election, adding that it was "a decision made a long time ago."

Despite the fact that the legislation established two maximum renewals of the director's contract -which Borja-Villel had already fulfilled up to a total of 15 years at the helm-, the then director could choose to present himself again for a new period of 5 years --and two other renewals--.

After his departure, it was the artistic deputy director of the art gallery, Mabel Tapia, and the deputy managing director, Julián González, who have assumed the position on an interim basis until the arrival of the new director.

NEW DIRECTOR AFTER 15 YEARS

Borja-Villel arrived at the Reina Sofía after a process that ended in December 2007 and prevailing over 28 candidates, seven of them foreigners, who entered the international contest organized by the Ministry of Culture --then directed by César Antonio Molina-- to replace the former director, Ana Martínez de Aguilar, who resigned.

Then, an International Committee of Experts, chaired by the Director General of Fine Arts, José Jiménez, was in charge of choosing the new head of the museum after launching a Code of Good Practices and which established that he would only have artistic competences.

However, with the successive renovations -one with José Ignacio Wert in charge of Culture and the other with Íñigo Méndez de Vigo- this work was expanded.

LIGHT AND DARK IN 15 YEARS OF DIRECTION

Borja-Villel's work at the head of the Reina Sofía these years in office has been marked by some achievements such as reaching a record number of visits with the exhibition dedicated to Salvador Dalí in 2013 -with a total of 732,339 people- - or the rearrangement of the museum's permanent collection, which was completed and presented in the last semester of 2022.

On the contrary, his tenure has also been dotted with some controversies, such as organizing an exhibition by León Ferrari that included works such as a crucified Christ on an airplane --and which led to a lawsuit by Christian Lawyers--, or this last stretch in which he has received various criticisms for contemplating the possibility of extending his mandate beyond the three phases that enabled good practices.

Since he became director, he has implemented a visitor accounting policy that has supposedly elevated him above other museums such as the Prado --with more than 3 million annual visitors--, although these figures include free venues del Retiro --Palacio de Velázquez and Palacio de Cristal--, leaving this last year a total of 1.1 million people only for the main venue.