With an aim to promote investigation and dissemination of our earliest past, and keeping its leitmotiv looking to plastic arts, design and architecture, MARCO Vigo shelters on the first floor of the building an exhibition entitled CREATING THE NECESSARY, a show aiming to make an approach to history design in the XX Century in Galicia.

It was last year, July 2003, when another exhibition produced by MARCO under the title "Undisciplined" talked about the frontiers between art and design, taking as the starting point a new generation of Spanish artists. Today, the approach is quite different, and the way is the opposite: instead of starting from the earliest creations, it focuses in investigating on the past in order to offer the clues to make a contemporary reading on the History of design in Galicia, its origins and its main characters. This is the first time a museum devotes a group exhibition to the History of design made in Galicia or by Galician artists.

The exhibition is centered around the design of homewares and graphic design, from the design prototypes of advertising or furniture to the graphical design examples nowadays. Any examples of multimedia design or fashion have been avoided on purpose as they are considered in itself worthy of a separate study and specific research.

It must be underlined the work of investigation developed during the preparation of the show, including research through libraries and newspaper libraries, personal archives, visits to private collections, verifying existing resources at regional museums, companies, foundations and houses. With this regard, the main objective of this exhibition is to bring to light the work by a number of artists -architects, painters, drawers-, their approach to design, and their important contribution to Galician culture, mainly before the 80's, when there was no official training; when the word "designer" lacked of today's definition, and most objects, advertising designs, publishers and furniture where made by plastic artists or architects.

As research goes on, MARCO staff became conscious about the necessity of gathering together in a catalogue all these findings, not only the pieces in the exhibition but also critical texts. The result is an unique publication including interesting contributions for consultation by experts and general opinion, with a retrospective of critical texts, raging from 1916 to today, about the history of design in Galicia. This is the first time they are put together in a publication.

Now, the heterogeneous nature of the works included and complexity of gathering under the same building such various authors have lead the museum to turn to experts in order to design the installation of the exhibition, those being Irisarri + Piñera Office of Architecture.

The chronological leitmotiv of the tour can be classified just as follows:

1. From 1900 to 1936, when some artists such as Federico Ribas, Cándido Fernández Mazas, Carlos Maside and Castelao can be outlined.
- Works: lithographic stones, industrial containers (tins, bottles), toys, posters, pieces of graphic and advertising design, documentaries.

2. From the post-war period to 1975, including works by Luis Seoane, Isaac Díaz Pardo, Alejandro de la Sota, Jesús de la Sota, José María de Labra, Caruncho, Ramón Vázquez Molezún, or José Bar Boo, among others.
- Works: pieces of furniture, houseware, crockery, téxtiles, posters, graphic and publishing design, documentaries.

3. From 1975 to nowadays, separated into two different spaces: one devoted to graphic design and the other one to furniture design. Designers such as the group Re-visión, Imago Mundi, Manolo Janeiro or Alberte Permuy, artists such us Francisco Mantecón, Moncho Amigo and Jesús Núñez, architects such as Carlos Quintáns, Jesús Irisarri, Guadalupe Piñera, Alberto Noguerol and Pilar Díez, and companies such us Justo Román S.L. or María Martínez S.A., among others, are included in this stage.
- Works: examples of graphic design and furniture design.

This show must not be considered as the finished and closed result of a historical reading, but as the beginning of a research, as a contribution and the starting point for thinking about our closest past.