Two students of the Master's Degree in programs of study of Curatorship of the MUN will curate the exhibition 'Function and Fiction' in Cuatrecasas, with pieces from the Bergé Collection.

A reflection on the role of art and fiction in working life and vice versa. This is the idea that runs through Function and Fiction. Forms of meeting with the works of the Bergé Collectionproposal exhibition that opened last Thursday in the hall of the Cuatrecasas law firm in Madrid. Curated by Santiago Ávila and Celeste Garduño, students of the IV promotion of the Master's Degree in programs of study of Curatorship of the Museo Universidad de Navarra, the project was selected among those presented to the competition by the students, who worked with works from the Bergé Collection. 

At the opening, the curators held a meeting with the public and were accompanied by Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, partner of Cuatrecasas; Pedro Enciso, vice-president of Bergé y Cía; Nieves Acedo, director of postgraduate program; and María Aguilera, curator of the Bergé Collection; who especially remembered Jorge Badía, CEO of Cuatrecasas, who passed away last July.

Through nine pieces of contemporary art from the Bergé Collection, the curators have populated a space socially conceived as aseptic and businesslike to invite us to think about the human and functional relationship we have with spaces and objects of everyday use, and to give them a new meaning. Specifically, works by Andy Warhol, Nina Saunders, Richard Wilson, Caroline McCarthy, M+M, Chila Kumari Burman, Marijke van Warmerdam and Patrick Vanden Eynde will be exhibited. One of the pieces will be chosen by the office's own workers and visitors through a vote promoted by the curators.

As the curator Santiago Avila explained, "the proposal is based on two reflections: the function that everyday objects can have in an office and to think about spaces that are completely opposite to the office: universes that we can create, colors, contrasts..., but not only aesthetically, but also how another subject of worlds can be fictionalized".

In this sense, his partner Celeste Garduño points out that they not only thought "about the conceptual part, but also about how these works could speak from these concepts and from the space they were in. It was very important for us how to relate to the works and to this space from function and fiction". Likewise, the curators stressed that this has been "a collaborative curatorialwork " and that they conceive "curatorship from other points of view, not only from the prototypical, but as something much more free and horizontal".

In her speech, Saénz de Santamaría pointed out that "a good lawyer has to think outside the box, have imagination, and this project will increase our productivity and our creativity". Thus, he valued that the proposal "is a gift" because "it looks for the way to make art part of our daily life and of our work". For his part, Enciso underscored the ability of this curatorial work "to go beyond the dialogue of the works among themselves, which is evident in this subject of collections and the dialogue of the artist with the spectator. Putting oneself in the shoes of a collective that is going to coexist in these months with the selected works is not an easy task. It is a great work".

Acedo pointed out that "within the profession of exhibition curator, a very interesting field of action is work with collections and also experiences that go outside the usual circuits and introduce art into people's daily lives. This is an exemplary case and an opportunity to consider how to do it".

Cuatrecasas, the Bergé Collection and the University Museum of Navarra share the goal of incorporating art into daily, business and professional life, since art contributes to the development of critical capacity and, through creativity, financial aid to reflect on the reality around us, while enriching individual skills and those of the whole society it serves. 

The jury of the competition in which the project was selected -formed byJorge Badía Carro; Alicia Alcocer Koplowitz, collector; Ángel J. Gómez Montoro, president of the board of trustees of the Museo Universidad de Navarra; Nieves Acedo del Barrio, director of the Master's Degree in programs of study of Curator; Pedro Enciso Bergé, vice president of Bergé y cía; and María Aguilera Aranaz, curator of the Bergé Collection - highlighted the high quality of the proposals received, among which it has selected this "for its clarity in the exhibition of the concepts, its sharpness in the understanding for the public and humor in the selection of the pieces adapting to the project".