Visiting the only open air museum in Spain

Did you know that Montenmedio Contemporanea is the only open air museum in Spain and is in my region? I felt that this museum was a fresh wind of ideas, innovation, and inclusion but:

The space is between a golf resort and a 4* hotel, in an area that is well known for fancy holidays and an amazing sea side, and it is only accessible by car. You need to pay 10€ to enter even if you are a local. Is art only accessible for the wealthy, art knowledgeable, and tourists? And don’t get me wrong, it is not for the price ticket. It is because the location made me wonder how the public programme works and if there is enough engagement with the nearby towns and villages. Cadiz region holds the highest percentage of unemployment in Spain and there is a very reduced contemporary art and modern museologist scene.

I like the fact of exhibiting in unconventional spaces but the journey around the museum is not accessible:

1. For people with reduced mobility

2. Those with visual impairment

3. The collection is a mix of stablished international artists such as Marina Abramovic or Olafur Eliasson. I mean, this is something big. However, the elitist side flourishes when the labels appear only have the name of the artist, work title, and the date. How do local people get this? I know, we are talking about contemporary and conceptual art but still.

Worth to mention that using real war bunkers for installations and displays can be good (like transforming one in a hamman) but you need to be careful when displaying the refugee experience in it. More if upon entrance you explain that Cadiz is an important migration zone for animals and then you display a fatal scene of forced displacement with broken boats, that’s painful.

Apart from some stunning installations and their school trips, tours, flamenco and gigs, and sporadic workshops; I missed residencies, lectures, community engagement, local presence, temporary exhibitions, contemporary performances and more workshops and gigs. Everything felt very quiet and static, without life, when Cadiz is totally the opposite.