THE CENTRAL AMERICAN ART INSTITUTE (ICAC) OF THE REINA SOFIA MUSEUM IS BORN

The institute, promoted by Salvadoran Mario Cáder-Frech, one of the most renowned agents in cultural management, collecting and dissemination of Central American art and awarded last year by Spain's ARCO Foundation, aims to become a space where critical lines of thought, artists and researchers converge to work on the relevance and positioning of contemporary art in and about Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, and with a special call to the diasporas and their specific production.

Cáder-Frech himself commented at the presentation of the initiative at the Reina Sofia Museum that one of the main objectives is “to ensure that the voices of Central American artists are also part of the dialogue of contemporary art” and that the collaboration of the Spanish art gallery as a partner in this venture is essential, both for its experience in the museum field and for the work developed in these areas.

The initiative is being presented now, but its genesis dates back to the beginning of this century, with the creation of exhibitions and spaces in the consular offices of El Salvador in the United States. “This is a process that goes back 25 years,” says Cáder-Frech, “when I observed the need in El Salvador and in the Central American region to support young, conceptual, contemporary artists. There was no government institution that could support artists to be able to go abroad and participate in international biennials, and with several friends, we made a list of everything that would have to be done to fill that void”.

That first phase lasted for a decade, right up to the inauguration of MARTE, the first art museum in El Salvador, where the process was reversed, in a way. “We began to bring international and renowned artists to El Salvador, to exhibit in the museum,” recalls Cáder-Frech, “and during their stay they would produce their works in collaboration and with the support of local artists, so that they could begin to have a relationship with international artists and see how they worked. It was a cultural exchange”.

Without losing sight of the list of needs, Yes! Contemporary (Young El Salvador) was developed, a program without borders and without physical space that focuses on the Salvadoran diaspora, which still has some reflection in the ICAC: it aims to maintain a concrete line on the Central American communities in other countries, but also claims that diffuse localization: “We learned from Yes! to take this whole process to an institution in the world, which was someone who understood the importance that it is a program that has to exist in and for the region, no matter where it is physically. It doesn't matter where the headquarters is, and the fact of being in a headquarters that has tentacles and is contemporary is what is relevant for us to have the infrastructure that an institution offers you”, Cáder-Frech points out.

The development of the ICAC in Madrid obviously maintains a certain link with Ibero-America, but it should also be understood as an opportunity that does not advocate “having a hierarchical intention” and more for betting on a space “that builds knowledge and helps us to look at each other as equals,” says Amanda de la Garza, deputy artistic director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia.

Thus, the ICAC will have different study programs and a specific work to take advantage of the connection of international networks and societies, those “tentacles”, as defined by Manuel Segade, director of the Museum, and that will allow strengthening the exhibition and visibility of the work of the Institute and of Central American contemporary art “as a reference of its kind, since there is currently nothing similar to study the art of the region”. The Museum's role will also be consolidated as a promoter of dialogues and cooperation between Central American and global institutions.

A residency program will also be developed for researchers of Central American origin to delve, first hand, into the needs of the art scenes in the region, as well as to define and draw new narratives and analysis. Another of the instruments that the ICAC will have at its disposal will be the Collections and Library of the Reina Sofia Museum, departments that will focus on the acquisition, research and activation of the production of Central American artists or artists of their diaspora included or framed in the Collections of the Reina Sofia Museum.