It could be said that the origin of the new Centre Pompidou in Málaga (Spain) was a conversation between the present Major of Malaga and the French Ambassador during a football match held in Malaga in 2008. There came the idea of Malaga hosting a branch of Centre Pompidou, as it finally happens with Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and Musée du Louvre in Abu Dhabi in a non-stop process of internationalization of arts. Seven years later that dream came true.
Malaga boasts the privilege of being the first branch that Pompidou Art Center designs abroad, not in France since after Paris there is a second Centre Pompidou in Metz, inside a magnificent building designed by the Japanesenot in Paris but in Metz there is a headquarter designed by Shigeru Ban (Pritzker Architecture Prize). The recent opening of Pompidou Art Center and the Russian Museum architect Shigeru Ban, architecture Pritzker Prize. The project has come to swell a wide range of cultural offer that Malaga provides in a sum of 36 museums and exhibition centers.
This Malaga Center has a permanent collection of 90 works of art that are coming from Paris and offers a journey from the historic avant garde to the latest contemporary art. Everybody can admire these works of art in the 6.300 squared meters of a large glass cube located in Malaga harbour. The collection includes some works of the best art firms in 20th and 21st centuries, Picasso, Chagall, Magritte, Brancusi, Bacon, Picabia, Kandinsky, Giacometti and Frida Kahlo. Inspired by the idea of human body, the collection is split into 5 thematic areas: “self-portraits, metamorphoses, man without a face, political body and body in pieces.”
The frame, Frida Kahlo
Sunday, Marc Chagal
The flowers hat, Pablo Picasso
Self portrait, Francis Bacon
The rape, Magritte
The agreement signed with the French institution will last for 5 years that can be renewed.
There will be also temporary exhibitions in a dedicated area of 363 squared meters related to photography, architecture, design and video. In addition, there will be place for other artistic movements as dance, film, spoken word and others. The main purpose of the Center is to open the contemporary art to the largest audiences.
The Pompidou Art Center organizes a guided tour supported with educational material referred to the exhibition´s theme for children from 5 to 10 who attend in groups or with their families.