At a time when maximalist and exclusive definitions are being questioned, the ontological question “what is a museum?” has not been abandoned but has survived in a variety of forms. For example, it is considered in negative terms, “a museum is not this”; as a belligerent proposal or a reading plan, “a museum challenges or a museum reinterprets”; and as a desire for connection or a positioning against stereotypes, “a museum invites or a museum complexifies”. 

It is therefore difficult to escape the framework of self-definition because it seems that if museums do not rely on strong attributes, on identifying typologies, on original objectives and nomenclatures, their place within the uses of culture is fragile or dispensable, even if this involves certain soliloquies. 

After the various historical episodes of institutional criticism, and after the recent systemic, economic and health crises, museums have drawn up an aggressive new—and to some extent ecumenical—agenda based on their social function, the place that they occupy in the public sphere. 

This course aims to review some concepts that are used when museums put forward their respective stories. The seminar will also explore some methodologies that affect how museums seek to disidentify rather than claiming an identity.

A blasphemous alphabet for spelling museums
Tuesday, 16 April, from 7 to 9 p.m.
This session is based on the hypothesis that museums need an alphabet that is disruptive rather than exemplary, that disorders rather than offering order. To do this we will resort to some fantasies that have historically intruded into museums when they were seeking other objectives, some miscalculations that were more than just an unforeseen reversal—perhaps an index of possibilities from which to abandon the confessional temptation.

La Virreina Centre de la Imatge (2016-2024)
Thursday, 18 April from 7 to 9 p.m.
Taking as a case study the period from 2016 to 2024 at La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, we will analyse the exhibitions, research projects, public programmes and publications that represented or represent epistemological ruptures in the outlook of the institution. Rather than eulogizing certain contents, we wish to analyse the blind spots of a complex institutional mechanics in which the outcomes did not always match the aims.

Valentín Roma is a writer and exhibition curator. He has a doctorate in Art History and Philosophy from Winchester School of Art (University of Southampton) and has directed La Virreina Centre de la Imatge since 2016. He has presented curatorial projects in various museums and at national and international events such as the Venice Biennale, the Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart, Matucana 100 in Santiago de Chile, MUAC in Mexico City, the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, the Centro de las Artes in Seville, the Museo Universidad de Navarra and the Fundación Mapfre in Madrid. The artists he has curated include Alexander Kluge, Muntadas, Barbara Hammer, Nanni Balestrini, Marguerite Duras, Pedro G. Romero and Ketty La Rocca. He has published the trilogy of novels El enfermero de Lenin (2017), Retrato del futbolista adolescente (2019) and El capitalista simbólico (2022), all of them published by Periférica. He has also written the essays Rostros (2011, Periférica) and Diecinueve apagones y un destello (2020, Arcadia). He is currently preparing his fourth novel, titled Los trillizos.