• The exhibition Un tiempo elástico (2013-2023), hosted by Fundación Banco Santander, presents the ten artists who have been distinguished with the Fundación Banco Santander-Open Studio Prize for Artistic Production.
• This exhibition, curated by Beatriz Alonso, reflects on the artists' evolution through their most recent works and those created within the framework of the prize, placing their careers in dialogue and exploring the impact of the last ten years on contemporary Spanish art.
• The participating artists are Andrea Aguilera, Elvira Amor, Pablo Capitán del Río, Olmo Cuña, Irati Inoriza, Jesús Madriñán, Mònica Planes, Belén Rodríguez, Javier Rodríguez Lozano and Mario Santamaría.
• The exhibition can be visited from 23 January to 23 March at the Sala c arte c (Centro de Arte Complutense) in Madrid. Entrance is free of charge. For more information, visit the Fundación Banco Santander website.

Madrid, 14 January 2024 - PRESS RELEASE

Fundación Banco Santander and Open Studio present Un tiempo elástico (2013-2023), a commemorative exhibition of the Fundación Banco Santander-Open Studio Artistic Production Award, a programme that, for ten years, was dedicated to promoting the careers of young emerging Spanish creators at the beginning of their professional careers.

This award was created with the aim of giving visibility to artists far from the commercial circuits and providing them with essential tools to advance their careers. For a decade, the programme offered the winners a residency in collective studios in Madrid, as well as financial support for the production of their work. We are proud to see that this prize has marked a turning point in the careers of many of the winners," says Borja Baselga, Director of the Fundación Banco Santander, "This format has sought not only to encourage artistic creation, but also to promote the exchange of ideas and the development of collaborative networks within the sector, thanks to the geographical mobility and relationships established during the creative processes in the studios.

Curated by Beatriz Alonso, the exhibition brings together works by the ten award-winning artists: Andrea Aguilera, Elvira Amor, Pablo Capitán del Río, Olmo Cuña, Irati Inoriza, Jesús Madriñán, Mònica Planes, Belén Rodríguez, Javier Rodríguez Lozano and Mario Santamaría. The selection covers a range of disciplines and languages, from painting and sculpture to installation and video art, highlighting the richness and diversity of contemporary art in Spain.

“Contemporary art documents current values and challenges, while contributing to the collective memory and the legacy we will leave to future generations. Supporting young creators is key to strengthening the future of art and enriching the creative landscape with new perspectives,” concludes Baselga.

The director of Open Studio, Maria Eugenia Alvarez, says: "It was a fundamental decision on our part to organise this exhibition, because it's been ten years since the prize was created, and to see how the work of these ten great artists has evolved and continues to evolve is a gift and a surprise to all of us who worked on it and, we think, to everyone who visits the exhibition. In this exhibition you will be able to see a representation of Spanish contemporary art from one decade".

Following a process of dialogue between the ten artists and the curator of the exhibition, the show explores the relationship between some of their most recent works and those created within the framework of the prize. “This exhibition aims to review the evolution of the work of these artists, but also to invite us to reflect on the impact of the events of the last decade in the Spanish artistic context,’ explains curator Beatriz Alonso. ‘Some artists have carried out a thorough archaeological work on their own production, especially the winners of the first editions, and it has been very significant to see that some of the interests and obsessions they had at that time have continued to be maintained over time, some being very present in their most recent works, as is the case, for example, of Belén Rodríguez”.

In addition to highlighting the careers and celebrating the artistic talent of these artists, this exhibition also reflects on the changes in the Spanish art scene over the last decade. In this period, the cultural and social context has undergone significant transformations that have influenced the way artists develop their work and relate to their environment.

“The title of the exhibition refers to time, but not to a linear time, which responds to a western convention of narrating history, from a predominantly male point of view, which is therefore partial and biased”, explains Alonso, “now we are moving towards another place, where these conventions don't work for us, because they are exclusive on a cultural, biological, emotional, hormonal level...”. “They leave out many beings and many states of those beings, because we are not linear either, nor are our bodies.”

Another interesting perspective from which to approach the exhibition, according to its curator, is the generational one: the ten artists have different experiences and backgrounds, but form part of two different generations. “The artists born in the 80s have had more resources, opportunities and grants than those of the generation of the 90s, and this is also interesting to explore in terms of context”, concludes Alonso.

Here, too, a very strong plastic and material tradition comes into play. There is more interest in our tradition, and at the same time there is a look abroad or globally, as a consequence of the greater mobility of artists in recent decades. "Javier Rodríguez Lozano has an ultra-local research; also Irati Inoriza, with a sculptural language that draws on digital thinking. We are also witnessing a generational leap in relation to the digital” shares Alonso, “Jesús Madriñán is making photography with a transtemporal nature, moving the studio to the public space. There is this generalised need to reconnect with the material/material in this hyper-digital world in which we live. Even Mario Santamaría, who works with data, ends up translating it into a tangible format. Elvira Amor has a very focused gaze on the revision of the pictorial tradition from a contemporary point of view. Or Pablo Capitán del Río, in Granada, in his studio, looking at the sculptural tradition from the south”.

At the moment, society is showing a need to recover memory; despite living in a time when technology allows us to store everything, we have the feeling that things are being lost or forgotten. “What happens is that we don't know how long these devices in which we store things will last, but we do know how long books or terracottas have survived, the latter despite seeming vulnerable”, concludes Alonso. "Art itself has gone through a very strong process of dematerialisation that began in the sixties, and now it seems to be rematerialising.”

The exhibition also shows that there is a lot of workshop production embedded in the practices of the ten artists. They create with the resources and materials available to them, distancing themselves from large-scale production and prioritising the use of raw materials, working locally, with a sustainable approach that also reflects the needs of today's society and greatly humanises the artists' work.

The exhibition can be visited from 23 January to 23 March at the Sala c arte c (Centro de Arte Complutense), Av. Juan de Herrera 2. Admission is free.

About Fundación Banco Santander

Fundación Banco Santander strives to contribute to the construction of a more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable society. With this objective, we develop initiatives grouped into three lines of action: the promotion of culture as a tool to understand the world around us, social action to facilitate the progress of vulnerable groups and education and entrepreneurship as the driving force of society.

In all our programs, we strive to create collaborative networks with the third sector to address the main global challenges.

Further information about the Foundation is available on our website www.fundacionbancosantander.com or through our Social Networks:

About Open Studio

OPEN STUDIO is a private initiative project of the NON-PROFIT ASSOCIATION OPEN MIND ARTE Y CULTURA, which promotes the growth of the creative fabric, completes the cultural and artistic offer and contributes to the economic development of the sector.

Open Studio is a platform created to support, promote and disseminate contemporary Spanish visual artists, mainly young and mid-career artists, with the participation of foreign artists living and working in Spain.

This support for artists has been carried out over the last few years through different actions such as the Open Studio Madrid Festival, the Training Programme and Procesos Visibles with CAM or the Fundación Banco Santander-Open Studio Artistic Production Award, as well as the promotion and dissemination of artists through our website and social networks.

For more information about Open Studio, visit the website www.openstudio.es or follow us on Instagram @openstudiomadrid.es.

In the link below you can download photographs of the artists and their works: