On 21 September MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y León, is to present Existencias, its third major project drawn from the MUSAC Collection after Emergencias, the museum's opening exhibition that began on 1 April, 2005 and Fusion, Aspects of Asian Culture in the MUSAC Collection, that took place between December, 2005 and April, 2006.

The show will take over the museum's entire exhibition space (5 halls, Laboratorio 987 and the Showcase Project: over 4,000 sq m in total), introducing the work of over 200 Spanish and international artists held in the MUSAC Collection. Unlike the opening exhibition, which engaged with contemporary artists' political and social concerns, Existencias does not follow a specific theme. On the contrary, it goes with the flow of art collecting's inherent tendency towards accumulation and selection. Through this cumulative presentation, reminiscent of the Baroque salons and cabinets, the intention is, on the one hand, to underline certain concepts inherent to generating an institutional collection (accumulation, a diversity and blending of disciplines), and on the other to reappraise our ways of seeing as determined by this cumulative use of space.

MUSAC Collection artists shown in Existencias, among others: Marina Abramovic, Alberto García Alix, Bleda y Rosa, Daniel Canogar, Hussein Chalayan, Gregory Crewdson, Atom Egoyan y Juliao Sarmento, Jorge Galindo, Carmela García, Douglas Gordon y Philippe Parreno, Candida Höfer, Juan López, Alicia Martín, Ryan McGinness, Paul Pfeiffer, Tobias Rehberger, MP & MP Rosado, Julian Rosefeldt, Francesc Ruiz, Charles Sandison, Soondegard, Trine & Howalt, Nicolai, Montserrat Soto, Jennifer Steinkamp, Wolfgang Tillmans, Joana Vasconcelos y Massimo Vitali.

In line with the exhibition, the museum will publish Volume II; a progress report on the collection since 2005. The book covers a number of works by a total of 122 artists, focusing on those that have been shown in the museum's exhibitions to date. The book will also include essays and the works' cataloguing details.

One of the project's key elements is a seminar on art collecting today: Collecting Today, to be held on 6 and 7 October at MUSAC. Professionals from both public bodies (museums and institutions) and private initiatives (private collectors) will share their experiences, address their perceived threats and field suggestions, as part of a global assessment of the relevance of collecting in today's international contemporary art world. MUSAC is an institution supported by the Castilla y León Regional Government's Culture and Tourism Department, through the Siglo para las Artes Foundation.