Being director of Tate Modern is more of a way of life than a job. It's always about two sides of a coin: you have to be both an idealist and a pragmatist; you need to be thick-skinned but also sensitive. And you have to be able to navigate any obstacle. Each day will bring challenges along with unexpected highs - last-minute changes to installations, an inspiring meeting with an artist or the prospect of a major acquisition. Most of all you need knowledge and experience of art. You need art historical knowledge and you need to keep up with what is going on in the world of contemporary art.

A lot of people say of me that I have incredible energy. I think and talk very quickly. It's important when you work in a gallery because you need to make connections with artists and other institutions around the world.

Interest in contemporary art has really taken off in the past 15 years. There's a constant ebb and flow of ideas: young artists coming on the scene; interesting collaborations going on; a powerful swell of global exchange. You have to keep up with it all. You couldn't be director of one of the most popular modern art galleries in the world if you didn't.

When I walk into Tate Modern in the morning, the monumentality of the architecture really strikes me. Then, when the space fills with people, its vastness hits me again. One of my favourite parts of the gallery is the collection displays - I enjoy going there to observe visitor responses.

Tate Modern has just opened the landmark Rothko exhibition. Alongside it we are opening a show I am curating with Guy Brett, Cildo Meireles. Cildo was a pioneer in conceptual art and I'm looking forward to him coming over from Rio for the installation. Apart from being a great artist, he's got an interesting mind and is a great conversationalist. One of the most satisfying things about my work is when a living artist is pleased with the way their work is presented. You don't ask what the art and artists can do for you but what you can do for them. I am an intermediary.

In the same way that a hospital provides a service and also carries out medical research, Tate Modern is both a gallery and a research institution, with curators working on new exhibitions and the public using it for their own reseach.

There are different routes to becoming the director of a major arts institution. I did a geography and history degree at the University of Valencia and I then majored in art history. Then I did a postgraduate in the history of modern art at Yale as a Fulbright scholar. A background in art history is essential but you need to get experience in a gallery, make connections. That's the basic starting point.

Vicente Todolí is director of Tate Modern

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