Ignacio Martínez del Barrio He just turned 62 years old. PhD in Art History in Italy, he also has a Master’s degree in Art Law and a professor at the Complutense Universitywhere he has taught courses in Spanish, French and Italian art and the sociology of art, his specialty.
He began his consular career in parallel with his activities at the University and failed the first year because he did not master French (despite the fact that he spoke English, German and Italian very well).
When he finally passed, he spent a year in the Diplomatic School of Madrid and from there to Ministryto make a career.
–What was the first country you went to?
-Japan. It was a shock, I was very pro-European but they encouraged me and I left. I was there four years.
-How was the experience?
–At first it was hard. I arrived without speaking Japanese and 30 years ago no one spoke English. It was difficult for me but I adapted and it ended in a passionate relationship with Japanese culture. There I started collecting Japanese art.
–Did you already collect art?
–Yes, but on a small scale and especially Spanish and Italian art. I had specialized in Spanish and Italian art of the 17th century. He also collected some contemporary art. But in Japan I discovered another world, although it was difficult for me to train my eye.
–And after Japan?
–I spent five years in Vienna, they were fascinating. It was the late ’90s, the Iron Curtain had just fallen, so you arrived at places and you still noticed the communist aesthetic.
-And then?
–I returned to Madrid, I stayed for two years. New offers came out, I asked for Vietnam but they gave me the Philippines. I was there for two years, it’s a complicated place. There were natural and human disasters every month. It was very hard and stressful work. But it is a very interesting country, with paradisiacal islands. The problem is the capital, which is a polluted megalopolis with hellish traffic and terrible poverty. It was a Spanish colony, then it passed into North American hands. So as a historian, and more of an art historian, I dedicated myself to searching for the vestiges of Spanish colonization, which are preserved especially in the baroque churches.
-Where did you go after?
–To Frankfurt, four years. It opened a Cervantes Institute very important and I was busy with that. Then, in one of those years, the Frankfurt Book Fairwhich is the most important in the world, had Catalonia as the guest Culture and I was able to return to my cultural passion.
–And from there you came to America?
–Yes, I was in Mexico as Cultural Advisor. We create the Buñuel House because the filmmaker went into exile in Mexico. The Spanish State acquired the house and we transformed it into a film center. They were three super intense years. I returned to Madrid, then to Paris, where the pandemic caught me. And when the competition opened again, I asked for a position in Latin America, as close to Buenos Aires as possible because the mother of Cease, my spouse, was older. Córdoba and Porto Alegre appeared and we did not hesitate.
–What was your first impression of Córdoba?
–It seemed to me to be a city with a somewhat brutalist architecture. The impact of (Miguel Angel) Rock I think it was very strong. I really liked the mountains, the Jesuit Staysthe historical legacy.
–What is the Consulate working on today?
–We have three large blocks of work. On the one hand, the 50,000 citizens that we have registered, who must be attended to: they need passports, birth certificates, family books and they have various problems. Then, we had to double down because a year and a half ago the Grandchildren Law (every grandchild and great-grandchild of a Spanish person has the right to nationality) and there has been a real avalanche of applications.
-How many?
–We have registered 40,000 applications. And having solved about half of it, it has been a titanic effort. The law was approved for two years and they have already said that it will be extended until October 2025. We have reinforced staff, but it is little. And above all, and this is a little sad, people are very impatient, very nervous.
-Why do you say that?
–On the networks they insult us, the staff has been shelved, they have entered their pages and have published private information about them. They have made slander and even homophobic comments. And I have to make this very clear: if there is one thing I do not consent to, it is that the staff of this consulate be attacked with defamation and homophobic comments. That’s a limit. People are working at 200%.
–There is general nervousness.
–Yes, but we are not the problem. I don’t know what the problem is and I’m not the one to say where the problem is. We are providing solutions so we ask that the abuse end because it seems very unfair to me.
–And the third block?
–It is cultural. The consulate is not just a paper-making machine, it has to have an external projection. Normally it has a commercial function that does not occur here because the borders and customs are still very limited, so there is not much commercial exchange. That is why the projection that I have seen, and also because of my training, was in the cultural field. We have the Spain Cultural Center Córdobaa joint work between the municipality here and the Aecid (Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation) with a very interesting programming; a Spanish film cycle in the Film club and, in the final stage, the exposition. Last year was the fiftieth anniversary of Picasso and something had to be done, especially when I found out that there were two works by him in the Caraffa. That show was curated by Paulina Antacli and the axis was to link Picasso with his friends who had lived in Córdoba: (Manuel) of Failure(Juan) Larrea and (Raphael) Alberti. And this year, as it marked one hundred years since the birth of Tapieswe put together ‘Tàpies and Zen’, linking Argentine Informalism.
–When are you leaving the Consulate?
–At the end of June. But I’m not leaving completely because projects have arisen in Córdoba and Buenos Aires.
-Which is it?
–In Córdoba, also with Antacli, we are working on an exhibition of the informalist artist Ernesto Berra. And the other project is with Fabio Egea.
–And in Buenos Aires?
–I want to do ‘From Ukiyo-e to manga’. The idea is to do it in Buenos Aires in 2026 and then see if we can bring it here. And the other project is about the great European masters in engraving.
DIGITALIZATION. A month ago, the consulate began to digitize the civil registration of its 50,000 citizens.
