Cuartor and art historian Manuel Segade has been announced as the next director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, The arts journal reports. Segade, who holds a degree in art history from the University of Santiago de Compostela, is the director of the Dos de Mayo Art Center Museum, a contemporary art center in the municipality of Móstoles in Madrid . He replaces longtime leader Manuel Borja-Villel, who in January announced his resignation of the post, considered one of the most prestigious roles in the world of contemporary art.
In a statement, the Spanish Ministry of Culture hailed Segade as “the candidate who obtained the highest score during the selection process”.
Before arriving at Dos de Mayo, Segade was coordinator of the programming of the Metronóm space of the Rafael Tous d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona Foundation and chief curator of the Galician Center for Contemporary Art in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. In 2017 he curated the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, exhibiting works by Jordi Colomer, a Spanish artist whose practice encompasses video, installation and sculpture.
Borja-Villel, who in 2007 was unanimously elected director of the Reina Sofía, is currently concurrently the Bienal de São Paulo 2023, which is scheduled to open in September. He is known for raising famous and unknown modern and contemporary Spanish artists and for promoting Latin American art. Widely credited with transforming the Reina Sofía into an internationally renowned contemporary art institution during his tenure there, Borja-Villel organized a well-received revamp of the museum’s collection in 2021. His departure came after a diary of right ABC accused the Reina Sofía of having unduly extended her contract. Borja Villel and the museum have refuted the allegations, and nearly two thousand professionals from the art world have signed a open letter supporting the respectable conservative and denouncing the “cultural war” unleashed by the Spanish “extreme right” as having led to his departure.
