Geysers at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya is a curatorial project that brings together four artistic proposals resulting from a research process at this museum. Ro Caminal and Cristina Lucas have present the results of this research in 2023 and Raquel Friera and Núria Güell will do so in the course of 2024.

The uncertainties of the present entail the need to rethink deeply. Rethinking the systems and established premises. Museums are not alien to these urgencies and are beginning to reflect on their role in society. This was made clear by ICOM when updating the definition of a museum*. Contemporary artists can play a key role in this rethinking. They can contribute to museums changing the traditional colonialist view for a more anthropological one, rereading historical discourses and contextualising their collections

In this contextual and vital framework, the programme Geysers at the museum was born. Geysers respond to a natural and strange phenomenon. They are thermal springs that result from the contact between the surface water and the heated rocks of the underground magma. On entering into contact, this heated water returns to the surface through porous rocks and can appear in different ways: in the form of steam, spectacular fountain geysers or cone geysers with more stable jets, among others.

We are moving this image, evocative of natural and organic processes, to the Museum, so that the work that contemporary artists do at the museum become the geysers. The artists research the museum, based on their own cultural and personal background, reacting to the contents, paying attention to the stories told by the Museum, its discourse, its collections, what is seen and what is not seen. And based on this, cross-cutting itineraries, unexpected and non-predictive shapes and formats appear.

During the 2022-23 period, four artists have been invited to research within the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya and to define a proposal within the museum's public programmes department

Montse Badia. Curator of Geysers

* “A museum is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage. Open to the public, accessible and inclusive, museums foster diversity and sustainability. They operate and communicate ethically, professionally and with the participation of communities, offering varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing.” (ICOM. Prague, August 24, 2022)