• Fundación Botín presents the XXV edition of Itinerarios, a fascinating insight into the production of a new generation of contemporary artists.

• The latest iteration of this event, first held in 1994, offers a snapshot of what’s happening today in art with works by Nora Aurrekoetxea, Fernando García, Cristina Garrido, Fermín Jiménez Landa, Rosell Meseguer, Shirin Sabahi, Blanca Ulloa, and Celia-Yunior & Henry Eric Hernández.

In 1993, Fundación Botín introduced a programme of Visual Arts Grants to support young artists by helping them to produce and exhibit ambitious research-based projects, while also providing them with an opportunity to seek further professional training. The following year, as a logical conclusion of the grant, the foundation instigated Itinerarios, an exhibition conceived to present the works created by the artists during the course of their grant.

Year after year, this exhibition provides young artists with a unique platform to show their work in an institutional setting while giving audiences a splendid opportunity to acquaint themselves with recent trends in contemporary art. Created across various disciplines and locations, the works are also featured in a catalogue published by Fundación Botín.

Benjamin Weil, curator of the exhibition and artistic director of Centro Botín, explained “as of 2019, Fundación Botín will have exhibited the work of 200 young artists, originating primarily from the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America, but also from the Middle and Far East, as well as North America. Most of these artists now have work in the Fundación Botín collection, thanks to their generous donation of a work featured in Itinerarios or to later acquisitions by the foundation to reinforce its holdings.”
This ambitious exhibition includes the works of the eight artists selected in the XXV Call for the Fundación Botín Visual Arts Grants from among 531 applications received from 35 countries, chosen by a multidisciplinary jury made up by Ferran Barenblit, Suzanne Cotter, Sandra Gamarra and Juan Ugalde.

As is now customary, the artists, on this occasion coming from Spain, Cuba and Iran, avail of the unique opportunity to deploy new projects or to give new momentum to others already in progress, together offering an overview of recent trends in art in thought-provoking works.

According to Benjamin Weil, in each new edition of Itinerarios “one can decipher synergies in the concerns as well as in the operating principles of the artists. Exhibiting together in a common space also stimulates dialogue between the projects and generally reveals a proximity in shared concerns, thus providing an overview of recent trends in contemporary art.”

This XXV iteration of Itinerarios, on view to the public from 16 February through 12 May 2019 in Gallery 1 at Centro Botín, offers a snapshot of the current state of play in art practice and insights into the work of many promising talents.