Blanca de la Torre, director of the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM), discusses her concept of the "Museo Anfibio" (Amphibious Museum) in an interview for Artishock Revista's series on Ibero-American museum leaders. She proposes reimagining the museum as a relational institution that mediates between physical and symbolic territories, communities, and ecosystems, structured around two axes: Territories-Earth and Aquatic Environments. The interview is part of a series leading up to International Museum Day, with previous entries including Nicolás Gómez Echeverri of the Banco de la República de Colombia.
This matters because De la Torre's vision directly addresses the contemporary museum's ethical and political necessity to respond to ecological crisis, social transformation, and institutional redefinition. By framing the museum as an "amphibian" — capable of moving between different realms and fostering horizontal, situated relationships — she offers a model that prioritizes care, collective process, and ecosystemic memory over object accumulation. The interview reflects broader debates about how museums can remain relevant and accessible while maintaining depth, especially in the face of pressures for representation and audience diversification.