Seminari MaILHoC

All along the 1980s and 1990s, neoliberal politics deeply affected Spanish society. The economic reforms proposed by both right and left governments altered sectors like electrical energy industry. During this period, Endesa, since then the public electrical company, was privatized. At the same time, Endesa brought several smaller companies, among them, the Catalan Fecsa. In the midst of those changes, Fecsa promoted a historical objects museum (Museo Fecsa) and an interactive exhibition about electrical energy (Espai Fecsa). In the mid-1990s, Endesa spend a large amount of money to sponsor “Energeia” an exhibition about energy in the National Museum of Science and Technology of Catalonia (MNACTEC). This was also the time when Spain witnessed the raise of the so-called science centers. Following the success of the Museu de la Ciència “La Caixa”, these museums flourished around the country promoting science education to school children using hands on displays in context free exhibitions. This approach contrasted with the more traditional historical objects-based museums, with “national collections” as primary goal.

Drawing from archival material, published material and oral history, this paper will analyze both Fecsa’s initiatives and Endesa’s sponsorship to illuminate the links between the neoliberal economic context and the electrical exhibitions. Corporations do not promote and sponsor exhibitions for the sake of it, which were the economic and political interest behind those exhibitions? Did those displays of science and technology form part of an overall corporate strategy? How did those competing approaches to science display affected the analyzed exhibitions? How did displayed objects or interactives helped (or not) to achieve the sponsor’s economic and political agenda? Focusing on the corporations’ interests and their connections with governments and museums, this paper will try to show how the neoliberal economical context modeled science and technology displays.