The city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife will house the second most important Rodin Museum in Europe, and will house the last original copy of one of the main masterpieces of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin, ‘El Beso’.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife will house the Rodin Museum in Viera y Clavijo Park
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At a press conference, the mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez, and the vice president of the Tenerife Council, Enrique Arriaga, explained the details of the agreement of intentions signed last Friday between the Tenerife authorities and the director of the Rodin Museum, Amelie Simier.
The setting chosen to house this important space is the Viera y Clavijo Cultural Park, whose rehabilitation project is currently being drawn up by the architect Fernando Martín Menis.
This installation will become the third on the planet dedicated exclusively to Auguste Rodin, along with that of Paris and Philadelphia (United States), and it will be the only museum in the world, outside of Paris, that has a replica of the ‘Hell’s Gate ‘, Bermúdez has advanced.
As the mayor has detailed, the signed agreement is the result of “months of work” with those responsible for the Museum and aims to turn Santa Cruz de Tenerife into one of the world capitals of sculpture.
The proposal for Santa Cruz aims to replicate the concept of the Rodin Museum in Paris, that is, that the interior of the building houses the exhibition of works of art, and the gardens an exhibition of cultures.
In addition, the roof of the Viera y Clavijo Park will be set up as a private space for outdoor exhibitions, with direct views of the Atlantic Sea.
Bermúdez recalled that the works would become part of the city’s heritage. “It is not a rental, we are talking about an investment that allows us to have the Rodin museum in Santa Cruz forever,” he remarked.
Regarding the economic impact, the mayor has assured that, according to the calculations made by the Department of Finance, an annual impact of 61.4 million euros (in a moderate scenario) and 158.8 (in a optimistic scenario).
For the first figure, 570,000 visitors have been calculated, an amount “to which we can aspire” given that “the island receives more than five million tourists a year approximately”, the mayor has remarked.
In December, those responsible for the Rodin Museum will visit Santa Cruz to see the Viera y Clavijo Cultural Park and continue working on the development of the details of this project.
The idea, Bermúdez has indicated, is that before the spring of 2022 the definitive agreement with the Rodin Museum is signed and that before the end of that year the rehabilitation works of the Viera y Clavijo Cultural Park have been awarded.
The first sculptures would arrive in the city in late 2022 and early 2023, and in principle, they would be welcomed by other cultural spaces, such as the Museum of Fine Arts.
Bermúdez recalled that Santa Cruz has a cultural history closely linked to sculpture, and that the city adorns its streets with sculptures by world-famous authors such as Henry Moore, Joan Miró, Josep Guinovart, Pablo Serrano and Martín Chirino.
The highest municipal official has been convinced that Canarian culture will be able to benefit from the Rodin brand when it comes to conveying its projects through the Museum, and has anticipated that the center will allocate spaces to host, temporarily and permanently, exhibitions of Canarian artists.
In this sense, the mayor has ensured that the cultural and training activities linked to the Rodin Museum in Santa Cruz de Tenerife may be linked and linked with actions of the Rodin Museum in Paris, which will create links between the Canarian and Parisian cultural ecosystems.
Similarly, Bermúdez has announced that the corporation will sign an agreement with the College of Architects to create a future International Center for Modern and Contemporary Sculpture, which will also be located in Viera y Clavijo Park.
For his part, the vice president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Enrique Arriaga, has reaffirmed that hosting the Rodin Museum will put Tenerife “at the highest cultural level” and will allow the consolidation of an alternative offer “to the traditional sun and beach”.
