A look at the art scene

Fundació Gaspar is an NGO that aims to promote contemporary art in Barcelona. We want to fill a gap and complement the other art institutions by bringing relevant international artists never, or rarely, seen in Barcelona before.

The foundation opened in November, but the mythic Sala Gaspar closed in 1996 and my family remained in the business but without a public space. In 2012, I opened an exhibition space as a commercial gallery but we realised it wasn't the best way to do it because what we want to do is recover the spirit of Sala Gaspar but without repeating what it did, as the artists they represented at that time are now strongly represented in the city; we already have a Picasso museum, the Miró foundation, the Tàpies foundation, and so on. But we did want to recover the spirit of Sala Gaspar and become a centre for the city's art scene and give a boost to the art world in the city that has been depressed for the past eight years due to the crisis. We realised we couldn't do it in a commercial gallery so we started thinking about an institutional project and the idea was to do it in the mid-term, but then suddenly the opportunity of having this amazing location appeared, and everything began to go very fast.

It's right next to the Picasso museum and the space is stunning. It's a 15th-century Gothic palace and the location is amazing because there are a million people going next door to the Picasso museum every year, which makes it a really important spot. But the most important aspect is we have recovered a really mythic art space for the city because that used to be the Maeght gallery and everyone remembers the big exhibitions they used to put on.

They support us because firstly it's great that something new is happening in this depressed situation, so it's also a good thing for them. And then, everyone knows that the more things you have going on in Barcelona is better for everyone, as it creates more visitors and more attention and everyone benefits.

It's a fantastic exhibition and I'm really happy about it. Anthony is a major artist and it is his first solo show in Spain. He's well-known internationally for his solid light installations, which are amazing installations that give you the feeling that you can touch the light and pass through them, and that's the work he's best known for. But in this show we have a selection of his pieces going back to the '70s and the show is a great relationship between the new ones and these older pieces. He was really happy about it because most museums are interested in the solid light projects.

We want to be eclectic. One of our founding goals is that we want to show as many different aspects of contemporary art as possible. We want to show many different artists, but always relevant and great artists, but who have many different approaches to the contemporary art world.

We are just finishing a couple of things for the main programme, but first we will have a public intervention in the downstairs area with a great young artist from New York, Ken Okiishi. He'll make an installation on the ground floor.

It depends on the show but usually there are two ways of doing it: either we propose the show, when the first thing to do is contact the gallery or the artist, and the other way is someone proposes the show to us, a curator or an artist. Once you decide you want to do it, the first thing is to find out what the concept of the exhibition will be, and then you start choosing the pieces, then comes all the logistics, the travelling, shipping, and so on.

It depends on the artist. Some artists want to control everything and have everything really clear, but then there are other artists who really like to work with the curator or the institution. So, each person is different.

In the local sense we are not done at all; we are still in a huge crisis. It will continue until the government does something to support us, as we are really struggling. We need that famous law of patronage, and then there is the tax problem of the VAT on culture, which is a huge problem for Spain. But in the end we are now in a global situation and the difference with 2009 or 2010 is that everyone can find us. And then internationally, the crisis was over many years ago, in the US or the UK, for example, they are in good shape.