Gala-Dalí Foundation: positive balance for 2021 and presentation of an action plan for 2022

The president of the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, Jordi Mercader, gave a positive assessment of the 2021 financial year to the Board of Trustees, which met in Figueres, and presented an action plan with which the Dalí Foundation wants to obtain positive results. in 2022.

Mercader explained that the Dalí Foundation has faced the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic through a drastic policy of austerity and changes in management that have allowed improvements in the use of economic and human resources.

The president of the Dalí Foundation emphasized that "the crisis arising from covid-19 has highlighted the fragility of cultural institutions and called into question their management capacity, mainly those whose resources come from its own activity ", as is the case of the Dalí Foundation.

Jordi Mercader has expressed the need for a "transparent, rigorous, efficient and innovative" management in order to carry out "a sustainable strategy that responds to the profound changes that are taking place in relation to cultural consumption and leisure". "It is necessary to adapt the way the contents are offered to an audience whose behavior will no longer be the same as before the pandemic," said the president of the Foundation.

As of September 30, the Dalí Museums have received 275,734 visitors, a figure that represents an increase of 60% compared to 2020 (172,538 visitors) and a decrease of 69% compared to 2019 (901,928 visitors). In terms of origin by country, in 2021, 29.8% of visitors come from the rest of Spain, 29% from France and 15.3% from Catalonia. The decrease in visitors from Russia, the United States and Asia is noteworthy.

The number of visitors to the museums of the Dalinian Triangle in recent months has amply confirmed its appeal and potential. It shows that "the public has embraced with renewed intensity the cultural offer offered by the Dalí Museums and has appreciated their condition as safe spaces, managed with the utmost care in terms of health measures."

Mercader emphasized, in this sense, that the Foundation has received the Tiqets award for the most relevant Museum of the 2021 edition, an award given by this ticketing platform to the museums most valued by its visitors.

"The Foundation's intense international activity also indicates that interest in Dalí and Gala is still alive in many countries, both in conventional formats of thematic or retrospective exhibitions, and in immersive projects, which are a promising new way of getting the work of Salvador Dalí to large audiences ", highlighted Jordi Mercader.

At the suggestion of President Mercader, the Board of Trustees of the Dalí Foundation has appointed Isabella Kleinjung , General Secretary of the Foundation, as Head of the Foundation's legal services.

The Board of Trustees has approved the action plan planned for 2022, both in terms of promoting the three Dalí Museums and disseminating their work and thought through exhibitions and outstanding publishing initiatives. The ongoing exhibition projects that will be extended during 2022 are:

Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy illustrated by Salvador Dalí. Hall of Lodges of the Dalí Theater-Museum since 8 October. It is one of the most important series of graphic works by the artist, it has been produced in collaboration with the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Barcelona, on the occasion of the seven hundredth anniversary of the death of the luster Italian poet.
This exhibition occupies the same place as the exhibition inaugurated in the summer of 2020 and which has been on view until mid-October: Dalí. Surrealism is me. Landscapes out of time. A selection of 12 paintings from the twenties and thirties exhibited together for the first time, to which would be added 6 engravings from the series Memories of Surrealism .

Dalí in his Theater-Museum seen by "Meli". From the 24th of September you can see, in the space of the pre-crypt of the Theater-Museum, a photographic exhibition in which Dalí can be seen working on the creation of his museum. These are snapshots taken by his friend and photographer Melitó Casals "Meli".

On the international scene, three projects stand out:

Salvador Dalí. Atomic Leda and Other Representations of Gala
St. Petersburg (Russia) from October 12, 2021 to January 16, 2022.

The exhibition explores Gala's influence in the surrealist circle and especially in Dalí, who recognizes his mark by signing many of his works with the double signature.

Salvador Dalí. Imagination and Reality , Seoul (Korea), from November 27, 2021 to March 20, 2022. It has the collaboration of the Dalí Museum in Florida and the Reina Sofía Museum . It represents the Catalan painter's first contact with the Korean public.

Mind of Genius -Salvador Dalí. Taipei (Taiwan), from January 1 to April 28, 2022. Twenty years after the first retrospective, Dalí returns to Taipei. Despite being again an exhibition that embraces all eras, this selection of paintings and drawings reflects the interests and concerns of the artist, with special emphasis on scenographic projects and optical effects.

As for immersive projects, two are currently being held and there are two itineraries planned for 2022:

Dalí, the endless riddle . Atelier des Lumières , Paris, from May 19, 2021 to January 2, 2022. Itinerant of the immersive exhibition presented in 2020 at the Baus de Provence produced by CulturEspace .

Inside Dalí. Cattedrale dell'Immagine , Florence, from 16 September 2021 to 16 January 2022. Produced by Crossmedia , it will later travel to Antwerp and Ghent (Belgium).

The two publishing projects launched in collaboration with the German publishing house Taschen, which remained on standby during the pandemic, are resumed: a biography of Dalí illustrated with almost all of the artist's paintings and his most outstanding projects. and The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí reviewed and commented on by the Center for Dalinian Studies.

During 2021, the Foundation has promoted Dalí's work and thinking through numerous media and digital platforms and social networks. Aquest any, la Fundació ha estrenat una plataforma en què s'ofereix en català, castellà, francès i anglès, la trilogia Salvador Dalí: a la recerca de la immortalitat, documentals produïts per la Fundació Dalí, realitzats per DocDoc Films i dirigits per David Pujol.

On the other hand, the Dalí Foundation participates in 'Creative Europe', a European cooperation project that aims to create standards for the identification of sculptural works in accordance with European Union regulations based on an approach innovative and interdisciplinary. The Dalí Foundation is leading this project, in collaboration with the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds (England), the Musée Rodin in Paris and CBM & Partners in Milan.

The Dalí Foundation has strengthened its presence in the environment with initiatives such as the Dalí project in Figueres, organized jointly with the city of Figueres and the association Comerç de Figueres, which has consisted of the exhibition during the day of ten life-size portraits of Dalí and, at night, the projection of four works on the façades of the city center. He has also collaborated with the international photography festival In -Cadaqués, donating the gardens of the house in Portlligat.

In the image, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri illustrated by Salvador Dalí. Hall of Lodges of the Dalí Theater-Museum since 8 October.