The Eduardo Westerdahl Museum of Contemporary Art (Macew) was the first contemporary art museum to open its doors in Spain, along with the one in Madrid, and houses a very important collection created in its day by the renowned art critic and writer who gave it its name and which includes works by prestigious national and international artists.
Despite this, and the intense activity that it develops with itinerant exhibitions, fairs and meetings with schoolchildren, as a result of an agreement with the Ministry of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands, it has never had a headquarters and its works rest in different warehouses in the Port of the cross.
The Macew was created in 1953 by Westerdahl himself at the headquarters of the Institute of Hispanic Studies of the Canary Islands (IEHC) with the collaboration of his wife, Maud Bonneaud, and Óscar Domínguez. Due to the lack of space, the exhibition was assembled and disassembled due to the failed promises of the political leaders of the moment to create a museum. And so they were twelve years.
In 1965, the director of the Gaceta de Arte and promoter of the surrealist movement abandoned his dream of having a home for the museum but left 60 works in the care of the IEHC that are still maintained today. “The gift is of such magnitude that it is normal for us not to have them,” declares the current director of the institution, Celestino Hernández.
From that moment on, the Macew entered a phase of ups and downs and attempts were made, without success, to resume the project. Fortunately, the work did not suffer any serious damage.
It was at the beginning of the new century, taking advantage of the 50th anniversary of the IEHC and the awarding of the Gold Medal of the Island by the Cabildo de Tenerife, when its then president, Nicolás Muzenmaier, told its managers that the institution housed a collection created in its day by Westerdahl who slept the sleep of the just in storehouses of the see.
Request heard
His request was heard and in 2007 the history of the Macew underwent an important turn and was again exposed to the public in the upper part of the Customs House, which had already been bought and restored by the Island Corporation. “However, at that time we were warned that it did not meet all the requirements to be a contemporary art museum, basically because it is right next to the sea and therefore the seasiness ends up affecting the work,” recalls Hernández.
In addition, being a historic building, it does not allow alterations or modifications in its conservation and it could not be enabled internally so that the works were perfectly protected. “Even so, it was a gift that we could not help but be grateful for,” he stresses.
On the occasion of the San Francisco Park rehabilitation project, in 2013 the Consortium contemplated locating the Macew headquarters there and fulfilling Westerdahl’s dream, which was once again frustrated due to the difficulties presented by the property, being located next to a BIC, still pending the reports of the insular Heritage Commission.
Other alternatives were presented, such as the Chimisay cinema, which was visited by Hernández and those responsible for the IEHC, who also presented a report but “ignore why in the end they did not get anywhere.”
Last proposal: The House of the Augustinians
The last proposal came from the previous manager of the Fernando Senante Consortium to locate it in the Casa de los Agustinos, property of the Bishopric of Tenerife and the Machado family. Hernández went there and studied with the technicians the entire lower part around the patio. “We like it because it is an emblematic property and it is far from the coast, which means that the conservation conditions are even better, so we gave the go-ahead and the project began to move forward,” says the director.
However, in the middle of the process, they informed him that half of the owners had not agreed and the operation was blocked.
In this mandate, with the change of management of the Consortium, those responsible for Macew found “that practically nothing has been done. Everything was good intentions and words but at the moment of truth and on paper we were told that there is nothing.
Hernández and his team started again from scratch, to make the round of requests, appointments, meetings with the island, local and regional officials. “We have met with everyone and we are once again raising hopes,” he points out.
The last thing they have been told is that progress has been made with the Machado family and that, therefore, the first step can now be taken, which is to acquire the Los Agustinos property.
This has been an aspiration of several corporations that, for various reasons, has never been able to come true until now. The emblematic building dates from the 18th century and was the Town Hall and for half a century housed the religious college of the same name as the order until it was closed in the 1995-1996 academic year.
Several mayors and mayors have tried to acquire it to give it an educational and cultural use. In 2003 it was also thought to move the municipal library there before moving to its current location, on Puerto Viejo street.
Being in a building with the characteristics of the Casa de los Agustinos will not only allow the funds to be expanded, but also the exhibition space and the organization of more activities.
Next year will mark 70 years since Eduardo Westerdahl had the initiative to provide his Island and the Canary Islands with a Museum of Contemporary Art. Despite the fact that it is a “hopeful fact”, in 2023 the Macew will continue without a headquarters and there are, for the moment, no guarantees that its dream can look to the future without uncertainties after the ups and downs suffered and without a budget item from the administrations that allows it to do so reality.
