Valentín Roma is the winning curator of the international competition held by the Institut Ramon Llull to prepare the project for the Catalonia pavilion at the Visual Arts section of the 53rd Venice Biennale 2009. The project includes works by Pedro G. Romero, Technologies to the People and Sitesize.

The curator’s proposal responds to the conceptual framework outlined by the jury in the competition brief, which consists of using contemporary art to explore the new forms of relationship that question the concept of identity in contemporary communities. The winning proposal includes Arxiu post-capital, by Technologies to the People, a multimedia project conceived by Daniel Garcia Andujar; the project Archivo FX, by Pedro G. Romero; and a work by Sitesize, a project platform funded by Elvira Pujol and Joan Vila-Puig which explores the area of social analysis and the creative processes.

Valentín Roma, a teacher in several art schools (Mecad, Eina, Elisava) with substantial experience as a curator, has worked in a range of domestic and international institutions and has published numerous texts in specialised magazines.

The jury (presided by Manuel Borja-Vilell, director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, and whose other members are Ignasi Aballí, guest artist in the International Section of the Venice Biennale in 2007, Daniela Ferretti, curator of the Palau Fortuny (Venice); Marta Gili, director of the Jeu de Paume (Paris), Chus Martínez, head curator of the MACBA (Barcelona) and director of the Frankfurter Kuntsverein Museum (Frankfurt); and Vicent Todolí, director of London’s Tate Modern) made its decision at a meeting held on 26 September after personal interviews with the leaders of the three proposals which the jury had earlier shortlisted for this final phase. The competition saw the presentation of 18 projects and a total of 32 professionals from a range of origins, some from international sources such as Mexico, Italy, Finland, Switzerland and the United States.

The jury unanimously chose Valentín Roma’s project as the winner for its “conceptual affinity with the philosophy expressed in the brief, for the viability of its process of production and because it feels that production of the project offers theoretical and critical content that gives meaning to contemporary artistic practice in Catalonia”.

With their decision, the members of the jury noted the following remarks:

“Up until the last moment, we were seriously considering the possibility of resigning en masse in order to show our disagreement with the policies of the Catalan government’s Council of Culture, in relation to the crisis precipitated with the CASM, and its failure to respect Catalonia’s artistic community and institutions.

- We have also place a high value on the exemplary and transparent approach that the Institut Ramon Llull has undertaken in the selection of the curator for the Catalonia pavilion at the Venice Biennale, in line with procedures described in the Code of Good Practices for Museums and Art Centres.

- Faced with this incongruence in the behaviour of our institutions, we have decided to support the proposal of the Institut Ramon Llull for its democratic and consistent approach to the need to foster the contemporary artistic practices of Catalonia and encourage independence among the ideas and projects of our land in an international context”.

The process of selecting the curator began on 15 July with the opening of the first phase of the competition organised by the Institut Ramon Llull with the goal of selecting a curator to direct the project. The first phase of the project concluded on 2 September. The jury selected three of the proposals presented to proceed to the second phase, which consisted of the further development of the project, along with a personal interview with the selected candidates on September 26. The IRL will have to present the Biennale Foundation with the chosen project, which the curator will need to complete before 2 November.

The Catalonia pavilion will form part of the Eventi Collaterali section within the official Visual Arts programme of the Venice Biennale, which consists of a collection of exhibitions organised by institutions dedicated to the art and culture fields. The project will be presented in a space measuring 500 m2 located at number 3, Magazzini del Sale, in the Dorsoduro district. The location of the Catalonia pavilion is especially appealing because it is situated in an area which is beginning to take shape as the new epicentre of contemporary Venetian art with the recent decision to locate there the Pinault Foundation, a modern building by the architect Tadao Ando which will be opened in summer 2009, coinciding with the opening of the Biennale, and which is located not far from the Magazzini del Sale. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is situated in the same area, as well as the installations of the Accademia di Belle Arti.

It should be noted that the Institut Ramon Llull will also be responsible for the administrative and logistical management of the Andorra pavilion at the Biennale. The Andorran government will be in charge of its contents.