• Roni Horn will open the exhibition calendar with a show meticulously conceived by the artist in dialogue with the spaces, architecture, visitor journey and light at Centro Botín. The year will close with Tino Sehgal’s first exhibition in Spain, an artist who never fails to move the public with his ‘constructed situations’ in which we are all protagonists.

• Fundación Botín takes another step forward in its support for mid-career artists with the launch of a new exhibition series highlighting the work of artists that have received one of its annual art scholarships. The first proposal, entitled ENREDOS is by Eva Fábregas, recipient of one of the foundation’s grants in 2010.

• In February, the Fundación Botín will launch open calls for its annual Art Grantsand Museum Management and Exhibition Curatorship Grants, maintaining its support for the most contemporary creation. Two workshops, led by Roni Horn and Tino Sehgal, respectively, are also in preparation.  

Centro Botín’s 2023 exhibition programme promises to surprise visitors through diverse and enriching experiences, ranging from the contemplative spaces designed by Roni Horn to the tactile experimentations of Eva Fábregas and the reflections on spirituality in the living works of Tino Sehgal. Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz, Director of Exhibitions and the Collection at Centro Botín, is especially thrilled to welcome “the great variety of experiences, rhythms and reflections that the invited artists will bring to our visitors in 2023. We will start with Roni Horn and her serene discourse on identity in relation to the mutability of climate and water; we then continue with the inflatable sculptures by Eva Fábregas, which are activated, embraced and traversed by the public to propose a link with art beyond the visual; and will conclude with the living exhibition created by Tino Sehgal, a space in which the only object will be a painting by El Greco, around which a series of choreographies will take place”. As in previous years, alongside these exhibitions will a new appointment for Itinerarios and the permanent exhibition rooms Portraits: Essence and Expression and Sculptures by Joan Miró.

Roni Horn opens the 2023 calendar with an exhibition meticulously conceived by the artist in dialogue with Centro Botín’s spaces, architecture, visitor journey and light, in which she will present a new series of ten glass sculptures. Curated by Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz, visitors will enjoy Horn’s photographs, sculptures, drawings and books, fruit of a heterogeneous and conceptually oriented practice that defies any kind of pre-established classification. In its exceptional subtlety, this body of work challenges us to sharpen our senses, plunging us into a silence that invites us to capture the small differences that will challenge existing ideas.

Coinciding with Roni Horn’s solo exhibition, Centro Botín will premiere the first of a new exhibition series dedicated to past recipients of Fundación Botín’s Art Grant entitled ENREDOS / ENTANGLEMENTS. The series invites artists to engage in a dialogue with the Fundación Botín collection, Centro Botín’s building, surroundings and public. Open from 20 May, artist and 2010 grant recipient Eva Fábregas will receive a dedicated exhibition co-curated with Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz. Visitors will be offered new readings of the collection, presented in an experimental way, activating the exhibition spaces and reinforcing the links that connect the Foundation with the beneficiaries of its scholarships. On the programme, Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz says, “the objective is, on the one hand, to activate the collection and, on the other, to take another step forward in supporting mid-career artists”.

In the autumn, the work of Tino Sehgal will be in dialogue with El Greco’s seminal painting The Adoration of the Shepherds (1577-1579). In Sehgal’s works — which he himself describes as “constructed situations” — the protagonists are always “ordinary” people; they invite us to abandon our passive contemplation and challenge the traditional context of the museum and the exhibition environment, thereby promoting a unique live experience that leaves no one indifferent.

The 2023 programme ends with Itinerarios, the annual exhibition cycle at Centro Botín that presents works by recipients of Fundación Botín’s Art Grant. The 28^th iteration will feature works by Luz Broto (Barcelona, ​​1982), Lucía C. Pino (Valencia, 1977), Fernando García Dory (Madrid, 1978), Henrique Pavão (Lisbon, Portugal, 1991), Jorge Ribalta (Barcelona, ​​1963) and the duo formed by Patricia Gómez (Valencia, 1978) and María Jesús González (Valencia, 1978). In addition, over the course of 2023 our visitors will be able to continue to enjoy the permanent exhibition rooms, which host Portraits: Essence and Expression, with works generously donated by Jaime Botín, patron of the Fundación Botín, and Sculptures by Joan Miró, which also respond to a long-term loan from Successió Miró.

Regarding the centre’s ongoing dedication to education and training, February will see the launch of the 30^th Art Grants and the 17^th Grants for Museum Management and Exhibition Curatorship. Also, accompanying their solo exhibitions, Roni Horn and Tino Sehgal will lead art workshops, continuing Fundación Botín’s commitment to promoting fruitful engagement between artists of recognised international prestige and upcoming creative talents.

CENTRO BOTÍN – EXHIBITION CALENDAR FOR 2023

RONI HORN

1 April – 10 September 2023, Gallery 2

(Press view Friday 31 March)

Roni Horn’s diverse practice focuses on conceptually oriented photography, sculpture, drawing and books that defy any fixed classifications. Her intellectually rigorous and emotionally profound work reflects on the processes of becoming in relation to identity and location.

Since 1975, Horn has travelled extensively across Iceland’s remote landscapes – these solitary experiences in a geologically young landscape have long been important influences in her life and practice. Her works follow the mutability of water, weather and landscape, counteracting the possibility of fixed states and stability, existing in an androgynous realm. Although Horn´s work is not directly addressing identity politics or the climate emergency, it is evident that these urgent debates infused her quietly radical oeuvre.

This exhibition is carefully conceived by Horn in dialogue with Centro Botín’s exhibition rooms, architecture, light and visitors flow.  It will include a reading area where audiences are invited to engage with Horn´s books, highlighting the significance of literature in the expression of her ideas. The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication with newly commissioned texts by American author Carmen María Machado; Spanish curator, researcher and author Isabel de Naverán, as well as an interview between Horn and Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz.

Roni Horn (born New York, 1955) had held solo exhibitions in institutions such as: Kunsthalle Basel (1995), Centre Pompidou (2003), Tate Modern (2009), Whitney Museum of American Art (2009), Kunsthalle Bregenz (2010), Kunsthalle Hamburg (2011), Fundació Joan Miró Barcelona (2014), De Pont Foundation, Tilburg (1994, 1998, 2016), Fondation Beyeler (2016, 2020), Glenstone Museum, Potomac, MD (2017), Pinakothek der Moderne Munich (2018), The Drawing Institute at The Menil Collection, Houston, TX (2018-2019), and the Pola Museum of Art, Hakone, Japan (2021-2022). Horn has received numerous awards. Among them 3 NEA Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1990, the Alpert Award in 1998 and the Joan Miro prize in 2013.

Curator: Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz, Director of Exhibitions and the Collection, Centro Botín

ENREDOS 1: EVA FÁBREGAS

20 May – 15 October 2023, Gallery 1

(Press view Friday 19 May)

ENREDOS, Spanish for entangelments, is a new series of programming at Centro Botín engaging artists who have been granted a Fundación Botín Art award, inviting them to respond to the foundation´s collection, building, site and audiences. The programme aims to support mid-career artists through the production, presentation and acquisition of news works. Through ENREDOS, Centro Botín will provide new readings of the collection, experiment with the display and activate its exhibition spaces, while continuing to nurture the foundation´s ongoing relationships with the grantees and their networks. 

For the first edition, Eva Fábregas will select a number of works from Fundación Botín´s Collection that resonate with her practice and develop a series of immersive spaces for their display. The collection’s artworks will be presented in dialogue with Fábregas’ existing and newly commissioned drawings and large-scale inflatable sculptures, which allow for gentle activations by visitors through embodied exercises and collective experimentation. 

Eva Fabregás work (born Barcelona 1985) revolves around desire and attraction, the somatic and the tactile, inviting the viewer to feel other possible bodies and forms of care.  Her work embraces the possibility of tactile engagement, physical intimacy, affective bonding, tenderness and various forms of corporeal experimentation with and through objects. She has exhibited at Whitechapel Gallery, London; Site Gallery, Sheffield; Bombon Projects, Barcelona; KV, Leipzig; Fundació la Caixa, Barcelona (2022); Kunsthal, Gent (2021); Yokohama Triennale; Tabacalera, Madrid (2020); Centrocentro, Madrid; Kunstverein München, Munich; TEA, Tenerife (2019); Hollybush Gardens, London; Gasworks, London; Arte Display, Berlín, La Casa Encendida, Madrid (2018); Fundació Miró, Barcelona; Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea; Ormoston House, Limerick; West Cork Center, Cork; CCA Derry ~ Londonderry (2017), amongst others.

Curators: Curator: Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz, Director of Exhibitions and the Collection, Centro Botín, Eva Fábregas, artist

Tino Sehgal / El Greco

7 October 2023 – February 2024

(Press view Friday 6 October)

Centro Botín will present an exhibition of Tino Sehgal practice in dialogue with El Greco’s seminal painting Adoration of the Shepherds  (1577-1579), originally realized for the Capilla de Santo Domingo del Antiguo, Toledo.

Sehgal’s works, which he calls “constructed situations“ are always enacted by people rather than consisting of material objects. In this way, the artist radically defies the traditional context of museum and gallery environments as visitors are invited to be a part of the artwork instead of being passive spectators. The resulting situations are immaterial and fleeting, what truly matters is the viewer’s experience created by the artist.

At the heart of Tino Sehgal / El Greco is the questioning of art’s relevance to society in terms of spiritual and religious values up until today. How does the divine ray of light in El Greco’s painting shape Sehgal’s development of a work that is not an object but a “situation“? How are El Greco’s depicted mannerisms transformed by a contemporary work of art? Does it matter how old a work of art is in order to be contemporary at any given time, even in the future?

Tino Sehgal (born London, 1976) is of German and Indian descent and based in Berlin. He has exhibited extensively worldwide.  Among his institutional exhibitions are: Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand; Fondation Beyeler, Basel; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Tate Turbine Hall, London; Ullens Center Beijing; Pinacoteca, Sao Paulo;  Solomon  R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK), Frankfurt. In 2013 Tino Sehgal was awarded the Golden Lion at the 55th Venice Biennale.

Curator: Udo Kittelmann, Curator and member of the Fundación Botín’s Art Advisory Committee.

ITINERARIOS XXVIII

18 November 2023 – April 2024

(Press view Friday 17 November)

Itinerarios, Spanish for itineraries, is Centro Botín´s annual exhibition dedicated to the recipients of the Fundación Botín Art Grants. This cycle of exhibitions provides unique insights into the latest debates taking place in contemporary art. Since the art grants were launched in 1993, they have benefitted more than 200 international creative talents by acting as a dynamic stimulus to contemporary art and supporting contemporary artists seeking to develop a research project in visual arts. A large number of the Fundación Botín grant recipients have already established themselves on the international art scene and are regularly present at significant events and institutions.   

The 28^th edition of Itinerarios will present the works of Luz Broto (Barcelona, 1982), Lucía C. Pino (Valencia, 1977), Fernando García Dory (Madrid, 1978), Henrique Pavão (Lisboa, Portugal, 1991), Jorge Ribalta (Barcelona, 1963) and the artist-duo Patricia Gómez (Valencia, 1978) y María Jesús González (Valencia, 1978). The jury that selected the projects was composed of Sandra Guimarães, artistic director of the Bombas Gens art centre in Valencia; Maider López, a creative artist who intervenes in architecture and public space (who was awarded an Art Grant in 1998); Manuel Segade, director of the Dos de Mayo art centre in Móstoles; and the visual artist Jorge Yeregui (who was awarded an Art Grant in 2013).