Brief history of the davis museum

Davis Museum | The Davis Lisboa Mini-Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona was founded on Facebook in 2009. It is the first contemporary art museum created in a ballot box through social networks. It functions simultaneously as a readymade sculpture, a collective work of art, and a temporary, mutable conceptual space more than a physical one. A provocation to the art establishment. With its own permanent contemporary art collection, The Davis Museum is also a non-profit artistic project that organizes and produces exhibitions, encourages research, and promotes contemporary art exhibitions. Additionally, The Davis Museum organizes traveling exhibitions to other cultural centers, museums and institutions, nationally and internationally, while generating debate, thought, and reflection. Its mission is the selection, presentation, study, dissemination, and preservation of contemporary art by emerging and renowned artists from around the world.

Although the Davis Museum can't challenge the cultural hegemony, it's an example of the emergence of independent museums created by artists to crack the monopoly of big cultural institutions, the establishment, and an attempt to create alternative channels and increase the visibility of contemporary visual creation, organizing exhibitions, uploading videos and publications as an alternative channel of expressive information. And yes, it could be seen as a small revolution in the way we think, organize and act culturally and politically, and not just in the way we create art with more or less exhibition space or funding.

The Generalitat de Catalunya (Autonomous Community of Kingdom of Spain) formally recognizes the Davis Museum’s permanent collection of contemporary art.