The Museo Valenciano de la Ilustración y la Modernidad, or MuVIM, just next to city centre, is the perfect place to spend an afternoon. Not only is it home to several artistic exhibitions, but also the historical aspects of each individual piece make this an educational and beautiful place to be. When I first walked up to the MuVIM I was confronted with the building itself, but also the gardens, a courtyard, and a skatepark. I strolled through the gardens and saw a sitting area to accompany a café, as well as the local library right next to the gardens. From the very start, the MuVIM was presenting itself as a place where art, culture, and life all exist together.
The museum is home to a large model of the city of Valencia, an exhibit detailing the life and works of María Beneyto, a replica of Gutenberg’s printing press, and even the remains of one of the towers that surrounded the city in the middle ages. But among all these amazing exhibits, there is a temporary exhibit called “Japonismes”. Downstairs in the Alfonso Roig room, there are tons of artistic creations from the mid-to-late 1800s and into the 1900s, all from japan. From March 13 to August 17, this exhibition will be on display in the long, light pink room filled to the brim with collections of stupendous Japanese art.
Though it may seem strange to see a Japanese exhibit in the midst of a museum detailing Valencian artifacts and authors, the head of exhibitions at the MuVIM, Amador Griño, explains, “the flow of Japanese art objects to the west, especially ukiyo-e woodblock prints (images of the floating world), caused a profound shock to european artists.” as a city that is rife with European art, it is essential to acknowledge that which inspired european artists to create their works. Griño goes on to say that “impressionist and post-impressionist artists such as Monet, Degas, Renoir, Cassatt and Van Gogh found an inexhaustible source of inspiration in these prints.”
Entering the exhibit i was struck by the light pink shade of the walls, which immediately reminded me of the classic cherry blossoms that are so common in Japan. Then, seeing the array of creations, I dove right into the exploration of each. A polyptych piece caught my eye as its shimmery paint looked as if it had been part of the canvas forever, rather than applied with a paintbrush. the piece showed intricately detailed Japanese houses in the classic geometric style, as well as dark green mountains that disappear into the perfectly smooth clouds. with six panels making up the piece, it could stand on its own and offered a new perspective from each different angle I looked at it from.
Other paintings, too, were triptychs or polyptychs, small and hung on the walls or large enough to stand on their own. a smaller triptych that i saw was called “recintos exteriores del castillo de edo: caza en koganehara.” this woodcut on paper showed what looked like hunters with bows and arrows on horses as they tried to catch deer, foxes, and rabbits. Created in 1897, this piece had perfectly crisp lines and Japanese writing in the top right corner. The patterns and details were stunning. I could see how the impressionist artists received inspiration from these prints.
I wandered on, taking in the pottery, porcelains, hanging kimonos, and even a pair of wooden sandals that were on display. walking under a torii, the traditional Japanese gateway painted a bright shade of vermilion; I even spotted an old movie poster for “Feliz Navidad Mr. Lawrence”. Under a title that read “Cinema Japonista”, the movie poster and panels of descriptions honored the contributions of the Japanese director and composer of the film.
Concluding my trip, I couldn’t help but watch the skateboarders outside the museum for a couple of minutes. At first, it felt almost jarring to go from an art museum full of fine things and artifacts dating hundreds of years, to watching skateboarders as they practiced their stunts. then, remembering the intentions of the MuVIM, I realized that it actually made lots of sense to have a skatepark there; the MuVIM sought to bring the old into the new, and if it could succeed in exhibiting both Japanese artwork and Beneyto’s poems, and everything in between, it only made sense to have something so modern amongst the old, crumbling pillars of the courtyard. At the MuVIM, the old and the new coexist, and this is the only way to truly understand a city with a history as rich as Valencia’s.
Report by Fiona Pacious
Article copyright ‘24/7 valencia’
MuVIM
C/ de Quevedo, 10
Ciutat Vella
46001
Hours: Tuesdays to Saturdays 10 am-2 pm and 4 pm-8 pm.
on Sundays from 10 am-8 pm
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