The great socialist experiment - Spain's cultural policy towards the arts

In the post-Franco era, Spain has reestablished itself upon the international art scene through opening new museums and revamping its regulation arts administration. But repeated shifts in cultural policy, accompanied by dint of serial firings at key columns have put the Socialist agenda in serious jeopardy at nearest month's elections.

When the Socialists (PSOE) came to power in Spain 13 years ago, there was great excitement above their plans to heal the reaching far down psychic wounds inflicted by Gen Francisco Franco's implacable hostility toward the avant-garde and his regime's nearly 40-year ascendency and censorship of literature and the arts. In a determined break with the past, the Socialists repossess and streamlined Spain's bureaucratic agriculture ministry and embarked on ambitious throw outs designed to foster the contemporary arts and reestablish Spain as a major player in the international cultural arena. Spain's contemporary art fair, ARCO, was launched, the enormous Reina Sofia was inaugurated, and young Spanish artists were exhibited worldwide.

Socialist-led initiatives account for Spain's ongoing art-museum resound kicked off in the late '80 with Valencia's contemporary art museum, the highly felicitous IVAM (Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno). Shortly afterwards, the Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno (CAAM) in the Canary Islands was inaugurated. In 1995 novel museums opened in the cities of Santiago de Compostela, Barcelona and Badajoz, and a major museum throw is proceeding in Seville, all thanks to Socialist support.(1) In a les direct on the other hand significant way, the Socialists' early ties with the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum (via major exhibitions) place the stage for the Basque region's warm embrace of the ambitious Guggenheim-Bilbao throw currently underway [see "Front Page," Feb '95]

Now, however, upon the eve of an election (scheduled for March 3) that may well diocese the Socialists swept from power, an atmosphere of distrust and anger pervades the Spanish art world. Repeated shifts in the overall direction of the Socialists' cultural policy have been accompanied by means of round after round of regulation firings in the arts sector, leaving virtually no constituency unoffended. In the last 10 years alone there have been four directors of the Prado, three directors of the Reina Sofia, seven directors general of the fine arts and four directors of the tillage ministry itself. Popular exhibition programs have been abruptly dropp novel museums have temporarily closed owed to administrative confusion, and renowned institutions (such as the Prado) have been omited Despite the intense involvement of the post-Franco Spanish pres in cultural matters, little has been proffered in the way of objective critique from that quarter, and not seldom the facts themselves are in dispute, ff they are known at all. Fear of reprisals and squeezing to toe the party line are similar that many key players upon Spain's art scene, including the Prado's director, simply refuse to discuss the Socialists' cultural policies.(2)

In part the Spanish art world's dissatisfaction mirrors the broader public's disillusionment with the Socialists' performance, as well as their disgust with a seemingly endles stream of scandals. Among numerous abuses of power, a certain quantity of of the worst cases commonly on trial or under court-ordered investigation include: the discovery of the National Guard director's inexplicable affluence, his later flight from justice and his Keystone Cops-like capture month later in Laos; the ignominious fall from grace of Mariano Rubio, trusted president of Spain's equivalent to the Federal retain now facing trial for insider trading; the allegedly government-sponsored death squads that kidnapped, tortured and manslaughtered Basque separatists (as well as nine unrelated individuals, by dint of mistake); and the sensational revelation that Cesid, Spain's unknown police, illegally tapped and taped innumerable phone conversations between 1984 and 1991 including those of King Juan Carlos. (This last scandal forced the two the vice-president and the minister of defense to resign in June of last year.)

In May 1995 malignant voters punished the Socialists in local elections by dint of opting for the right. Shortly afterward, President Felipe Gonzalez mov national elections ahead to March 1996 (from 1997) The electoral tumultuousness has placed Spain's major museums in limbo and promises to affect arts activities completely through the country. On the national horizontal the Prado's and the Reina Sofia's directors and board members, as well as the agriculture ministry's entire executive staff, forthwith work under the threat of dismissal, should the elections make progress against them. City and regional cultural columns are likewise at risk, since they are many times doled out as post-election favors. These politically appointed arts officials in revolve designate the administrators of individual arts institutions. The triumph of the conservative Popular Party in new regional elections led to the replacement of Jose Francisco Ivars, director of IVAM, with right-wing curator/critic Juan Manuel Bonet (Subsequently IVAM curator Bartomeu Mari mov upon to become director of the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, allowing chief curator Vicente Todoli has chooseed to stick it out.)