Ten major milestones from a decade of the Pompidou centre in Malaga

Paco Griñán

Malaga

Saturday, 29 March 2025, 08:01

A decade ago the Centre Pompidou Málaga opened its doors, thereby joining the Picasso, CAC, Carmen Thyssen, Casa Natal and Ruso (inaugurated just a few days earlier), the final art institution to sign up to the great cultural push that has made Malaga a city of museums. This world-renowned, contemporary art brand had spread its wings for the first time, selecting the capital of the Costa del Sol as its first international venture.

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This milestone was also accompanied by the birth of one of Malaga city's architectural symbols. In a city without major urban landmarks, the cube of the Pompidou Centre, created by French artist Daniel Buren, not only became the brand image for this new art institution, but also by extension the most frequently used and iconic image representing Malaga's museums. The paradox is that the Pompidou is an underground museum of 6,300 square metres with the cube merely serving as a skylight into the exhibition rooms. The tip of an iceberg that is already an icon of Malaga.

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This French museum in Malaga was also a pioneering experience, as it marked the beginning of the internationalisation of the Georges Pompidou National Centre of Art and Culture in Paris, a project promoted in the 1970s by the French president after whom the institution is named. The Cube du Port was - and still is - the first Pompidou outside France and the one that has led the way to the exporting of the Pompidou brand with the subsequent arrival of other versions in Brussels (Kanal) and Shanghai (West Bund Museum Project) and the future launches of new centres in Seoul (planned for 2026) and New Jersey (2029), although the latter is still up in the air after the announcement of its cancellation last year.

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The Centre Pompidou is the fourth most visited museum in Malaga and has accumulated in its first decade of existence more than 1.5 million visitors to its gallery rooms. Like all museums, it suffered its lowest visitor numbers during the first year of the pandemic in 2020, when it welcomed only 55,916 people. Since then its recovery has beaten all previous records for the museum, recording in 2024 the best figures since its opening with 193,962 visitors and very close to the psychological barrier of 200,000 annual admissions.

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Among the moments to keep in the photo album for this first decade of the Pompidou is the visit of King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia to award Spain's medals of fine arts in 2018. The actors José Coronado, Ricardo Darín and Magüi Mira, the designer Lorenzo Caprile, the singer Gloria Estefan, the guitarist Tomatito, the dancer Rafael Amargo, the chef Pedro Subijana, the bullfighter Julián López 'El Juli' and the poet Julia Uceda were among those who received these awards from the Spanish monarchs. The event is also remembered because everyone stood in front of the orange canoe from a large painting by Scottish artist Peter Doig that served as a backdrop to the awards ceremony.

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Until now, the annual bill paid to Paris for the use of the Pompidou brand and touring exhibitions in Malaga amounted to 2.07 million euros per year. From this year onwards the budget will rise by 30% to adapt the fee to the cost of living, setting it now at 2.7 million euros. However, the maintenance of this institution adds up to more expenses than those of the Pompidou name and the works of art in its collections. If we add in the running costs for staff, activities, investments and other key elements, the overall budget for last year amounted to 6.7 million euros.

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Of the major exhibitions that have passed through the exhibition rooms of the Centre Pompidou Málaga during this decade, one of the most important was Joan Miró. Works on Paper (2015), and the first monographic exhibition dedicated in Malaga to the great Henri Matisse, A New Country. Both masters attracted over 60,000 visitors apiece to their respective exhibitions.

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The art centre has not only been the setting for exhibitions that have marked the exhibition pulse of the city, but also a symbolic meeting point for closer relations between Spain and France. Thus, French President François Hollande and his Spanish counterpart, Mariano Rajoy, visited the centre in 2017 on the occasion of the 25th Spanish-French Summit held in Malaga and held a press conference in which the French leader said that the Centre Pompidou Málaga, then the only one outside France, was a "source of pride" for his country.

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The programme of exhibitions at this French art gallery in Andalucía, which has exceeded 50 in its ten years of existence, has also brought to Malaga unpublished artists and major works of art. Among them, the retrospective for the 40-year career of French photographer Sophie Calle and her striking take on everyday life, the American artist Jim Dine (father of 'happening'), who came to inaugurate his last work at the age of 84, or the great posthumous review of Italian designer Ettore Sottsass, 'inventor' of the flying carpet chair and creator of the revolutionary red Olivetti 'Valentine' typewriter.

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An entrance ticket to the Centre Pompidou Málaga is a journey through contemporary art that costs less than a lunch menu in a local restaurant. The standard ticket costs nine euros and includes both the semi-permanent collection (changes every three years) and the temporary exhibitions. Turning to the latter, Friday brought one of those events that will go down in the history of the museum: the retrospective 'Vassily Kandinsky, pioneer of abstract art'. There are also reduced rates, guided tours for groups and free admission every Sunday afternoon (from 4pm).

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The presence of the Centre Pompidou Málaga in the city was agreed for ten years. In the initial stages it was even stated that this project would not be renewed. However, with the passage of time and experience, the French museum itself has been the first to declare its interest in continuing in Malaga, as the city has become the Pompidou's international calling card. Coupled with that reputation is the fact that the Paris headquarters is due to close for a comprehensive refurbishment. So, on Friday, Malaga city council and the French institution signed the renewal of their agreement for another decade with the same conditions as for the first, the only exception being the cost to Malaga. As a result, until 2035, the city will pay a total of 29 million euros for the brand and exhibitions over the next ten years.