The cultural manager Lluís Nacenta will be the new director of the Barcelona Design Museum (DHUB) as his candidacy was selected to occupy the position in the competition called by Barcelona City Council, as made public this Monday by the Barcelona Institute of Culture (ICUB). Nacenta will occupy the direction left vacant in April of last year by the cultural researcher and exhibition curator José Luis de Vicente, also elected by public competition at the end of 2022, after the retirement of the previous director, Pilar Vélez.
During the two and a half years in which De Vicente held the position, different academic entities signed a manifesto in which they warned about the “concealment” of various collections attached to the museum and even about its eventual “dismantling”, which was denied by the Councilor for Culture of the Barcelona City Council, Xavier Marcé, who defended that what the director was doing was “renewing” his story.
According to the rules of the competition, it is expected that Lluís Nacenta, with a degree in mathematics, a doctorate in Humanities, a Master of Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Thought and with a Higher Degree in Music from the Liceu Conservatory of Music, will take office within a period of ten days.
The rules also provide that the competition evaluation commission has had the advice of a commission of experts composed of the president of Foment de les Arts i del Disseny (FAD), Salvi Plaja; the general director of Innovation and Digital Culture of the Generalitat, Marisol López, and the manager of the ICUB, Oriol Martí Sambola.
The assessment commission was made up of the director of General Services and Municipal Resources of the General Services Management, Gloria Santamaria; the director of ICUB Resources, Lluïsa Pedrosa, and the director of Economic Planning Services, Selection and Promotion of People Management, Organization and Electronic Administration of Barcelona City Council, Mercedes Torres.
All of them have taken into account Nacenta’s “long” professional career, which includes the fields of cultural management, exhibition curating, university teaching and writing. Between 2018 and 2021, he was director of Hangar, Fábrica de Creación, and has been a collaborator of the Mies Van der Rohe Foundation since 2012. He is also a patron of the COAC Foundation and has taught and held positions of responsibility in several design and architecture schools in Barcelona, such as Eina and BAU.
Currently, he is Head of events and exhibition experiences at the audiovisual production company La Manchester, founded by journalist Ricard Ustrell. As curator, Lluís Nacenta has been in charge of the exhibitions AI, Artificial Intelligenceat the CCCB, in collaboration with the Barcelona Supercomputing center and the Barbican in London, or the monograph dedicated to Brian Eno, ‘Lightforms/Soundforms’, at the Arts Santa Mònica.
