Madrid (AFP)
An immense silence reigns in the halls of the Reina Sofia, the most visited museum in Spain in normal times where the restaurateur continues to watch over "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso.
But as the country begins to be confused, the institution hopes to reopen in a month because museums must "make it clear that one should not be afraid of others", explains to AFP its director Manuel Borja-Villel.
The calm is striking in the deserted corridors of the museum, closed since the start of confinement in mid-March and usually filled with art lovers or schoolchildren who came to discover masters of the 20th century like Picasso or Magritte.
A giant metronome, reconstruction of a work by Man Ray, sets the pace for an absent public.
"The joy in the museum has disappeared", regrets Mari Carmen Pinedo, security worker.
Restoration work has continued. "We have to be there (to) make sure that the works are kept in good condition", explains, a mask on the mouth, the chief restorer, Jorge García Gómez-Tejedor, inspecting Picasso's "Guernica".
After welcoming four million visitors in 2019, half of them foreigners, the museum fears a fall in revenue of 30% this year due to the containment decreed to stem the epidemic of coronavirus.
Now thinking of reopening, he will put many measures in place to ensure the safety of visitors against the virus, says Manuel Borja-Villel.
Number of visitors reduced to a third of normal capacity, as required by the government, gradual opening of rooms, temperature cameras, disinfectant gel, as well as a "traffic mode designed so that people do not meet ", he says.
And above all: "there will be nothing that people can touch", neither brochures, nor cards - downloadable on mobile -, neither doors nor elevator buttons.
Art can help this return to social life, with works that take on a new meaning, assures the director.
For example, "The girl at the window", the portrait of Dali's sister, who represents her leaning, looking at the sea, as if she could not leave her home.
After weeks of confinement, "it is important to transmit this joy of being with others, this idea that the human being, by definition, is not alone", he affirms.
- End of major exhibitions? -
There are lessons to be learned from a crisis that "caused what seemed unthinkable", a radical end to a globalized world with frantic mobility, he said.
The curator predicts a change in cultural production, ensuring that it will move away from the current "model of large exhibitions" to "emphasize long-term work, in opposition to this habit of chaining an exhibition after another ".
Prado, one of the two other major Madrid museums along with the Thyssen-Bornemisza, fears a fall in turnover of more than 70%, while 60% of visitors are foreign, with a large number of Americans, says communications director Carlos Chaguaceda.
Beyond this financial loss, the museum could be penalized by the problems linked to the loan of works when all the temporary exhibitions had to be rescheduled.
At Thyssen, the crisis "served as a detonator for the digital transformation" of the institution, recognizes the executive director Evelio Acevedo.
The museum has strengthened its online content offering, allowing for example to visit virtually and free of charge the exhibition "Rembrandt and the portrait in Amsterdam", physically scheduled until May 24 but which will probably be extended until the end of August.
This free content will not be used to stem the fall in revenue, which could reach 60%, acknowledges Avecedo, but will launch "a transformation process that will last for years".
© 2020 AFP