Remembering Berta Sureda
A Commitment to Contemporary Culture
Free, until full capacity is reached
The Museo Reina Sofía organises an encounter in memory of cultural manager Berta Sureda (Barcelona, 1959 – Palma de Mallorca, 2024), whose work was pivotal in opening new horizons in cultural institutions, placing creators front and centre and driving forward citizen participation. The activity here comprises a series of interventions by different cultural agents and fellow professionals and is conducted, in parallel, in the Museo Reina Sofía and the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), with a live streaming between both spaces. The interventions will be followed by a dance piece by the company Mal Pelo, performed by María Muñoz.
After studying Art History at the University of Barcelona, Sureda’s career began to take shape around cultural management as she held positions in institutions such as CCCB, the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Institut de cultura de Barcelona, la Fabra i Coats and Es Baluard Museu d’Art Contemporani de Palma. In 2008, she joined the Museo Reina Sofía, becoming part of Manuel Borja-Villel’s team and managing the recently created Department of Public Activities, where she introduced live arts to the Museo and established many new links to the cultural ecosystem. In 2015, she carried her experience over to regional politics after being appointed the new commissioner of Culture for Barcelona City Council. Across all of these stages, she was committed to testing out new modes of relations between institutions and civil society, and perpetually with a core mission of fostering an associative and independent cultural fabric.
Sensibility, listening and boundless creativity in Berta Sureda’s management have left their mark on an entire generation of culture workers, and thus this encounter wishes to acknowledge a life devoted to propelling culture by those who shared work and learning with her in the different phases of her professional life.
Participants
Manuel Borja-Villel is an art historian and curator who has served as the director of the Museo Reina Sofía (2008–2023), MACBA (1998–2007) and the Fundació Antoni Tàpies (1989–1998). His most recent publication is the book Campos magnéticos. Escritos sobre arte y política (Arcadia, 2020) and he was one of the curators of the 35th São Paulo Biennial. Currently, he directs the “Museu Habitat” Programme inside the Culture Department of the Generalitat de Catalunya.
María Muñoz is a choreographer and dancer and the joint director of the L’animal a l’esquena en Celrà centre of creation in Girona. With Pep Ramis, she directs the Mal Pelo stage creation group, which, since 1989, has developed its own artistic language through movement and the creation of dramaturgies.
Programme
12pm Welcome and presentation
12:15pm Dear Berta, the reading of a collective letter
12:30pm Remembering Berta Sureda, video
12:45pm Maria Muñoz, Bach, fragments
1pm Connection to the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB)
1:10pm Intervention by Manuel Borja-Villel