Tere Badia, Hangar’s new director

Yesterday, the AAVC’s Board of Trustees chose Tere Badia, a researcher and cultural manager, as Hangar’s new director.

Tere Badia (Mexico DF, 1964) has a solid academic education and has worked in research areas such as cultural policy, networking, international cultural co-operation and Research, Development and Innovation in artistic production.

In the professional arena she has been involved with the Fundació Interarts (Barcelona), and the communications agency Goetzinger + Komplizen (Karlsruhe), and she edited the Pla Integral de R+D+i a les Arts Visuals, Catalunya Laboratori, for the AAVC. She is currently programme co-ordinator for Disonancias a Catalunya, a platform that acts as a mediator between companies, research centres or public entities and artists to promote and encourage innovation.

The programme presented by Badia for the next four years (2010-2014) includes restructuring the current services that the centre dedicates to the three phases of artistic production, pre-production involving training and research, production where Hangar’s current services will be expanded and improved (offering workshop spaces, multipurpose areas, technical assistance, laboratories and residencies abroad) and postproduction following up completed projects.

Tere Badia’s programme makes a case for de-localisation (a centre without walls), versatility, networking, transmission and feedback in terms of knowledge, while developing a broader concept of Hangar that goes beyond the artists themselves and reaches out to other agents such as managers, theoreticians and mediators, as well as of the artistic sector by  looking to collaborate with other sectors.

Badia is particularly suited to oversee the expansion and renovation work that is about to begin at Hangar, as, between January and May 2008, she co-ordinated Hangar’s Functional Plan used by the architects Yaiza Terre i Arantxa Manrique for the renovation of Hangar’s buildings at Can Ricart.

Thirty-two people presented their candidacy for the position of director of Hangar (2010-2014), sixteen of these being resident in Catalonia and nine in the rest of Spain, four from European Union countries and three from Central America. Last week, the Fundació AAVC Board of Trustees interviewed five finalists and at yesterday’s meeting, Tuesday, November 24, they took a decision. Tere Badia will replace Pedro Soler who decided, after four intense and fruitful years at the helm of the centre, not to put himself forward for the position. Badia will take up her position on January 2. In the meantime she will work with Soler to ensure a smooth transition.

The AAVC’s Board of Trustees is made up of nineteen artists and, from June of this year, is presided over by Antoni Abad.

Hangar is a visual arts production centre run by artists. It was set up in 1997 by the Catalonian Visual Arts Association and is legally defined as a foundation. It offers spaces, workshops and studios for creation and production services in digital technology (video and audio editing, medialab and laboratory). Over the last few years it has developed a free programme (non-commercial software) for creative use. It collaborates with museums and art centres in Catalonia and the rest of Spain and runs an exchange and residency programme for artists over five continents. It takes part in the Fàbriques per a la Creació project promoted by the Barcelona Town Council, as well as Catalonia’s Network for visual arts production spaces and it is funded by CoNCA.

Barcelona, November 25, 2009.