Presentation of the book ESPAÑA 1889

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The book "España 1889" was presented in the MARQ Assembly Hall, in the presence of the President of the Provincial Council of Alicante and the MARQ, Joaquín Ripoll Serrano and the Director of the Institute of History of Material Culture of the Academy of Science of the Russian Federation, Evgeny N. Nosov; together with the Managing Director of the MARQ, Josep Albert Cortés, the Technical Director, Manuel Olcina Domènech, and the Director of the Exhibitions and Dissemination Unit, Jorge A. Soler Díaz.

The event was attended by the Spanish Special Ambassador for the Dual Year Spain-Russia 2011, Juan José Herrera de la Muela, in addition to the Minister-Counsellor of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Spain, Alexander V. Surikov, and the Director of the Russian Centre for Culture and Science and First Secretary of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Spain, Ilona Yavchunovskaya, who were accompanied by the Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Alicante and co-author of the edition, Emilio Soler Pascual, as well as the Director of the Library and Scientific Archive of the Institute of Russian History, Galina Dluzhnevskaya.

Since 2007, the MARQ has been collaborating with the Institute of History of Material Culture of the Academy of Science of the Russian Federation. Since then, several agreements have been signed for the exchange of scientific and museological experiences, as well as to deepen the knowledge of the rich heritage of both nations, establishing regular contacts in the fields of archaeological and scientific research, conservation, documentation, museology, didactics and dissemination.

It all began when in November 2007, at the initiative of the Manager of the MARQ Foundation, Josep A. Cortés i Garrido, a delegation from MARQ was received at the Institute's headquarters in the Mikhailovsky Palace in Saint Petersburg by its Director, Evgeny N. Nosov, in order to discuss an exhibition project on the Institute's archaeological research in the region of Tuva. An agreement was signed between the two parties that made it possible, for the first time outside of Russia, for the MARQ to exhibit "Scythians. The Treasures of Tuva" in 2008.

The cooperation between the two institutions gave rise to another project of great significance for both countries. The Library and Scientific Archive of the Institute of History of Material Culture, one of the oldest in Russia, has a collection of materials covering almost two centuries of the history of the art of photography, with more than one million negatives, photographs and cards dating from 1850 to 2011, among other things.

Among them is a valuable collection of materials related to our country, gathered by illustrious personalities, which includes magnificent photographic documents by Russian and European masters of great prestige, systematically catalogued. Among the collectors who gave rise to this exceptional graphic documentation is the Grand Duke, Admiral Konstantin Nikolaevich, to whom the first photographs taken in Spain and preserved in the Archive belonged. They were acquired in Granada in 1859 during a trip by the Grand Duke and his wife Alejandra Iosifovna to Granada and the Alhambra, where they stayed at the Hotel run by Washington Irving.

Among all this unpublished material is a huge album entitled "ESPAÑA 1889", which gives its name to the publication that now sees the light of day. The endearing enthusiasm with which Galina Dluzhnevskaya, Director of the Scientific Archive of the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences, showed the jealously preserved original, already foreshadowed the documentary importance of this album, made in Russia to store the photos purchased in Spain at the end of the 19th century.

The discovery captivated the Alicante Delegation, which almost immediately conceived a project for the dissemination of this historic and unpublished material. The endorsement of the MARQ Board of Trustees was the framework that gave free rein to the project, together with the invaluable participation of the MARQ trustee, Emilio Soler, professor at the University of Alicante and expert in travel books, in collaboration with Galina Dluzhnevskaya, Director of the Scientific Archive, when both agreed to carry out the scientific study that accompanies this evocative bilingual publication.

In 2009, a new Collaboration Agreement with the Institute favoured the digitalisation of all the documents by the MARQ and finally made possible the publication of the book that is now being presented.

The entire project has been funded by the MARQ and the Diputación de Alicante, as well as by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, an agency of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, as part of the programme of governmental activities promoted between the two countries as part of the officially declared Dual Spain-Russia Year 2011.

"Spain 1889" has been offered to the Spanish Royal Household for the Crown to include it among the initiatives to be carried out on the occasion of the celebration of the Spain-Russia Dual Year 2011.