In rigorous black, as always, with skull rings and pearl bracelets, he gets out of a taxi on Doctor Fourquet Street, home to several galleries in the Lavapiés neighborhood.
He takes off his sunglasses, puts on his glasses, and opens the door to his brand new space.
The Mexican Hilario Galguera (Mexico City, 66 years old), who works with creators such as Damien Hirst, James Brown or Daniel Buren, opens a headquarters in Madrid with an exhibition by the Belgian Peter Buggenhout.
This weekend coincides with Apertura, the start of the season for galleries in the capital.
Question
Why Madrid?
Response.
Since I came for the first time, as a child, I have verified that it is a city with many visual, sound and taste reflections.
Spain and Mexico are two countries that go hand in hand in many things.
Mexico, more than a colony, was part of the kingdom of Spain, it was about making a new country, with all the implications of construction, destruction... part of the natural course of history.
An exciting and unique syncretism was created in the world.
Q.
Is it another world or is it the same?
R.
It is a difficult world to take.
On the one hand, at first, it seems European, the cafes, the cinemas, the restaurants, the houses.
Later, when investigating other deeper strata, it is when all that pre-Hispanic past comes out and where nobody understands anything anymore.
It is unique for experimentation, that is why it attracted so many artists, poets, filmmakers… They took inspiration, but since there was not, nor is there, a cultural structure in Mexico that could receive these new visions of the world, they returned home.
Buñuel, Josef Albers, Robert Smithson… Damien Hirst's diamond skull is an Aztec skull from the first sketch.
P.
There is a debate about whether Spain should apologize to Mexico for the conquest.
R.
We brought thousands of years of tradition with kingdoms and empires that had splendor and decline.
And then there is the encounter with Renaissance Spain, which was the center of world power.
Forgiveness sounds stupid to me.
If I say that it is an occurrence of an elementary school child, it would be like insulting children.
Do Sapiens have to apologize to Neanderthals?
Rome to Greece?
Hilario Galguera with pieces by the artist Peter Buggenhout in the first exhibition of his gallery in Spain. JUAN BARBOSA
P.
It is not clear that ordinary citizens know what an art gallery is.
R.
We could talk a lot about that, but, basically, the gallery owner is the intermediary between the creator and the public.
Unfortunately, in recent years this concept has been corrupted by the push of the market, which already leads us to another problem.
Either we talk about art, or we talk about the market.
They are two totally different things.
Q.
How to differentiate them?
R.
There are galleries that are legitimately commercial, they have every right.
But the gallery, as it should be understood, is that receptacle in which gallery owners must explore, study, search for those proposals that are going to be significant for the general public.
In a broad sense: from the person passing through the street, to the fan, the collector or the museum.
You should not only focus on business.
P.
Is the market weighing more and more in the art world?
R.
It is that now it is about that.
And that has corrupted not only artistic production, but the artists themselves.
There are artists who while having coffee in the morning are already reviewing the Bentleys catalog [a luxury car brand].
I am not against money, we all need it, but the ultimate goal should be the production of art.
Q.
Why?
R.
What I appreciate is being in front of a piece that moves me, that can modify my vision of the world.
I prefer that to being in front of a work that doesn't convey anything to me, only for someone apparently authorized to tell me: “Listen, it was sold for 300 million euros”.
In the end, artists are forced to create works that serve to invest.
Art cannot be completely dissociated from the market, but they must be discussed at different tables.
Q.
Speaking of money, you were broke after your first few years in the gallery world.
A.
I am an architect.
I had my studio, but also an audiovisual production company and a company that organized massive events, such as the Pope's visit to Mexico.
I was doing very well, I had life resolved.
One day, in 1990, I told my wife: “Rosa, I'm going to become a gallery owner and I'm going to close the rest”.
P.
And what did you answer?
R.
He told me: "Very well, good luck."
I had come into contact with an American gallery, Ace Gallery, in Los Angeles, and started working with them as associate director.
That's how I worked with artists like Roy Litchtenstein, Sol LeWitt, Ed Ruscha or Michael Heizer, in gigantic spaces of more than 3,000 square meters.
It was my school.
Over time we opened a branch in Mexico.
I lost everything and decided not to have anything to do with art again.
I hardly had anything to eat
Hilario Galguera, gallery owner
Q.
What happened?
R.
After ten years fighting, the day came when I couldn't take it anymore, my resources ran out.
I lost everything and decided not to have anything to do with art again.
He barely had anything to eat.
Q.
But one day he came back.
It was the artist Damien Hirst, who is a friend of mine, who insisted that I should open another gallery.
I didn't see it clearly.
He was at the top and I was absolutely broke.
But one day, when we were both on the beach, he said to me: “Would you let me exhibit in your gallery?”, and he went for a run.
That changed things.
During the 15 minutes that he was running I thought about it and decided that I would open the gallery.
He named it himself, which is my name.
Q.
How was the exhibition?
R.
It was the first in the gallery and it was a success.
Not only did it change my life, but it changed the course of the history of contemporary art in Mexico.
It was from then on that kind of reluctance to look outside was uncovered.
That was the final trigger.
70,000 visitors.
Q.
In Madrid, your space is on a street with a high density of galleries, near the Reina Sofía, the Prado…
R.
Madrid was at some point the center of the known universe.
Now I am two hundred meters from the Prado, which I think is the most important museum in the world, because it contains the Western canon, except for a few missing pieces.
If art is the highest spiritual expression, the Prado becomes an infernal machine, it is an impossible museum, because it is not possible that you enter each room and there is an iconic work.
Q.
What is Machine Room?
A space for experimentation, something different that the gallery promotes in Mexico City.
Invite curators, musicians, poets, artists, to join and do different projects.
Q.
Why is it called that?
R.
Once, at a dinner with friends, they asked me when I started my artistic laboratory.
Leaving the bathroom of the restaurant I saw a room that said
machine room
.
And I thought it was a good name: laboratories are places of experimentation where there is room for error and success, but in a machine room there is no room for error.
P.
And everything works perfectly in the Machine Room?
A.
Not really (
laughs
), it would be arrogant to say that.
But it sounds nice.
Q.
Why do you always wear black?
A.
When I was bankrupt I always had to be prepared in case they called me.
"Buy it all black," my wife advised me.
From then on I stayed that way, because I understood that the world doesn't always have so many things to celebrate.
My wife passed away just a few days ago.
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