Art and politics are fields that are strongly connected, they attract and repel each other, draw continuity, and cause ruptures. The essays collected in this volume are subject to the tension between these two forces. They are reflections on the contemporary condition, on the artistic practice, on the limits and potential of the museum: each text is located in time and space and reflects the intellectual path of Manuel Borja-Villel, head of important museum institutions, and some of his curatorial concerns, as responsible for numerous exhibitions and public events over the last thirty years. A supporter of hybridization and sharing of knowledge, in front of the inaccessible compartmentalization of knowledge, this book is committed to interdisciplinary research and the interrelation of multiple fields. And it is, above all, an invitation to reflect on art, its organizations, and its actors.

Manuel Borja-Villel, was born in Burriana (Spain) in 1957. He has been director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, director of the Museu d'Art Contemporani in Barcelona, and previously of the Fondació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona. He holds a BA in Art History from the University of Valencia, Spain, and a PhD in Art History from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Curator of XXXV Bienal de São Paulo, he currently lives in Madrid.