The PP and Vox dismiss the director of the Center del Carme in Valencia with out having an alternate cultural plan | Culture | EUROtoday

This Tuesday, the PP and Vox dismissed José Luis Pérez Pont as director and supervisor of the Consortium of Museums of the Valencian Community and the Center del Carme. Contemporary Culture (CCCC) of Valencia, a place he held for seven years. The second vp and Minister of Culture, Vicente Barrera, of Vox, convened for this Tuesday the council of the Consortium, made up primarily of the Generalitat, the three provincial councils and the three metropolis councils of the capitals, ruled by the PP and the extremely formation, for the “termination of the contract and dismissal” of the supervisor of the establishment “with effect from the following day.” The earlier administration of the Consortium, ruled by the left, two years in the past renewed the contract till 2025 of Pérez Pont, who took workplace after profitable a merit-based competitors in 2016.

All the political representatives of the Consortium have voted electronically in favor of Pérez Pont’s dismissal. There has solely been one dissenting vote, that of Begoña Martínez, consultant of the Consell Valencià de Cultura, an advisory physique of the Generalitat on cultural issues that maintains the left-wing majority of the earlier government. Pérez Pont can be changed beginning tomorrow on an interim foundation by the regional Secretary of Culture, Paula Añó, till two individuals are discovered as substitutes: one can be in command of the inventive half and the opposite, the administration. There has been no allusion to the plans and future programming of El Carmen, which has gained public help in recent times.

The Consortium, whose honorary president is the pinnacle of the Consell, Carlos Mazón, of the PP, has used to justify the termination non-compliance and irregularities detected in audits throughout Pérez Pont’s administration in some contracts, comparable to the shortage of consistency within the documentation of the designation of members of the contracting committees, award resolutions or contract formalization, amongst different administrative points collected by Intervention.

Sharp and harsh types of dismissal

Reasons that Begoña Martínez considers inadequate as a result of they aren’t “serious”, nor do they represent a “crime” and lots of the irregularities have been corrected, as expressly indicated within the audits themselves, as she stated within the telematic assembly. The artwork knowledgeable, gallery proprietor and editor has regretted the dismissal for “malpractice” that she doesn’t see as justified in any means and the blunt and harsh methods through which it was carried out, with out her listening to her allegations.

Pérez Pont has proven his disagreement with the accusations, has defended his administration and can attraction his dismissal in court docket, as Martínez defined to this newspaper. The supervisor, who beforehand labored as a lawyer, has remained silent today. On Monday night time he despatched a message on his X account (previously Twitter): “These days you will learn information about my administration that makes an attempt to defame me. I ask you to not imagine them. I’ll converse sooner or later. Thanks to your help”.

The Ministry of Culture has not defined what its various plans are for the Consortium and particularly for the CCCC, situated within the outdated convent of the Carmen neighborhood. This enticing and spacious architectural complicated structured round two cloisters (one Gothic and the opposite Renaissance) has been transformed right into a dynamic and busy multi-purpose and interdisciplinary area by Pérez Pont. It obtained 319,940 guests in 2022, in accordance with information from the Consortium itself, 90.75% greater than the earlier 12 months, and 4 occasions greater than 2016. An excellent a part of its viewers is younger. With free entry, El Carme provides all kinds of proposals, from up to date artwork exhibitions to fashions of fallaes or talks of a social nature, by movie screenings, concert events which have included singers comparable to Alfred (from OT), or actions to lift consciousness concerning the local weather emergency.

The finish of Pérez Pont’s profession, nonetheless, appeared marked. PP sources additionally keep in mind that the earlier PSPV-PSOE and Compromís Government changed the earlier supervisor of the Consortium and El Carmen, Felipe Garín, former director of the Prado Museum, shortly after arriving, and nothing occurred. The president of the Generalitat commented a couple of months in the past in an interview within the newspaper Abc the comfort of change. The PP has been very crucial of the supervisor of El Carme, permitting the city artist PichiAvo to color a graffiti mural on the partitions of the Renaissance cloister in 2019. There was a criticism and final 12 months he was convicted of a minor crime for harm to property and a superb of 1,000 euros. The supervisor, nonetheless, obtained the help of quite a few cultural entities {and professional} associations, which recalled that the partitions are usually not the unique ones and that they’ve been painted on earlier events.

Since the Consortium’s agenda turned recognized, there have been quite a few messages of help on the networks for Pérez Pont, who turned recognized to the general public greater than 20 years in the past, when from the path of the Valencian critics and the galleries was very belligerent with the administration of the controversial Consuelo Ciscar, director of the IVAM between 2004 and 2014, and protagonist of the PP’s cultural coverage throughout her mandate within the Generalitat between 1995 and 2015. Support comes not solely from professionals world wide. of Culture, but additionally of left-wing politicians comparable to the previous mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó, of Compromís (“There is a museum in the heart of Valencia that has been revolutionizing culture for eight years, especially among the youngest”). The supervisor has opened El Carme to quite a few teams of every kind. Precisely, this indefinite, generic, catch-all character has additionally obtained some criticism in sectors of latest artwork. In any case, six associations of creators, gallery homeowners and critics have referred to as this afternoon for a rally in entrance of the middle towards the “unnecessary” departure of the supervisor and the intervention “of the Ministry of Culture without explaining the objective reasons.”