The Viera y Clavijo Park in Santa Cruz will be the headquarters of the Rodin Museum. This was announced yesterday by the Santa Cruz City Council, after the mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez, together with the vice president of the Tenerife Council, Enrique Arriaga, went to Paris, the city in which an agreement was signed with the director of the aforementioned Museum, Amelie Simier, so that the chicharrera capital becomes the third city in the world to host a space dedicated entirely to the work of the renowned French sculptor, after Paris and Philadelphia. This agreement establishes that throughout 2022 the City Council and the Museum will specify, in an agreement, the participation of the institutions involved and the time frames for its execution. The architect Fernando Menis, who was also present at the signing of the agreement, is currently working on the renovation project of the Viera and Clavijo, and will be in charge of adapting it to house Rodin’s sculptures, both inside and outside. In other words, in the Viera gardens, in the image and likeness of the Rodin Museum in Paris.
The agreement signed yesterday is the result of months of work, which dates back to the beginning of this year, when the first contacts between the Capital City Council and the Museum took place. As the Consistory recalled, it is an agreement with a city, Santa Cruz, which has behind it a cultural history closely linked to sculpture. Since the 1970s last year, and at the initiative of the Official College of Architects of the province, some thirty sculptures by world-class artists (Henry Moore, Joan Miró, Josep Guinovart, Pablo Serrano, Martín Chirino …) have been located in the streets of the city after the first international exhibition of sculpture in the street was held 48 years ago. These antecedents give even more meaning to the agreement signed yesterday, which will mean the arrival in the city of the father of modern sculpture, and whose ultimate goal is to make Santa Cruz a great International Museum of Modern Sculpture. In fact, the President of the Canarian Council of Colleges of Architects, Argeo Semán, also went to Paris to sign the agreement. It should not be forgotten that the recently deceased architect Vicente Saavedra was one of the fathers of the International Exhibition of Sculptures on the street.
The mayor described this agreement as “exciting for Santa Cruz, for the island of Tenerife and for the Canary Islands, and it will be a pole of attraction for visitors as it is the first international museum of these characteristics to be installed in the Islands, a unique, cultural opportunity and economic for the Archipelago ”.
Bermúdez indicated that the objective is “to connect this project with the permanent exhibition of sculptures in the street, which has existed for almost half a century in our city, by world-famous authors, and that with the future Rodin Museum it will complete that hallmark of our city, as the international capital of sculpture ”. In addition, the councilor said that “we generate a focus for the dissemination of work, both local and national and international artists.”
For his part, the vice president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Enrique Arriaga, indicated yesterday’s date as “a very important day for the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, for Tenerife.” “With the signed agreement,” he added, “we will be able to enjoy the Rodin Museum, a fact that will put Tenerife at the top in terms of cultural offerings, with original pieces by the French artist, and that can be visited by tourists who they come to the island, consolidating an alternative offer to the traditional sun and beach, in this case also cultural and world-class ”.
The director of the Rodin Museum, Amelie Simier, highlighted the French artist as “the most famous sculptor, father of modern sculpture, and author of iconic works such as The Kiss or The Thinker, which represent what modern sculpture really is”.
Original works
On Thursday afternoon, a working meeting was held in which, in addition to José Manuel Bermúdez and Enrique Arriaga, the councilors of Finance and Culture, Juan José Martínez and Gladis de León, and other representatives of the Rodin Museum participated. to work on the content of the future agreement and the space management formula, and it was agreed between the parties that during the month of December those responsible for the Rodin Museum will visit Santa Cruz to see the Viera y Clavijo Cultural Park and continue working in developing the details of this important project.
This rehabilitation project will be adapted to the needs of use derived from the agreement and will also include a space for temporary exhibitions that give visibility to local artists, in addition to giving rise to promoting a future International Center for Modern and Contemporary Sculpture. with the aim of introducing a space in which not only to contemplate pieces of art, but to contribute to their interpretation and dissemination, and that will revolve around the exhibition of sculpture in the street.
Municipal sources point out that the signing of this commitment has been carried out with relative ease, given the good understanding that has existed between the different administrations. In addition, Santa Cruz, in the first work meeting, pointed out some of its objectives, such as having some of Rodin’s best-known pieces, such as El Pensador or El Beso, through reproductions of them made in the molds. originals left by Rodin, limited and numbered, something that has already been done, for example, with the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, which has a reproduction of The Thinker.
Modern sculpture
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) is considered the father of modern sculpture. The space occupied by the museum that bears his name was opened to the public in 1919 and receives an average of half a million visitors each year. In addition to this headquarters, there are only two spaces on the planet dedicated exclusively to the French artist: the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia (USA) and a wing dedicated to the sculptor in the Shizuoka Prefectural Museum, in Japan.
In the Rodin Museum in Paris you can see more than 6,500 sculptures and about 10,000 drawings including prints, watercolors and engravings, in addition to the collections gathered by the sculptor.
