Great Mexicans and Leonora Carrington open Faro Santander

Faro Santander, the new cultural project of the Banco Santander Foundation in the Cantabrian capital, was finally inaugurated yesterday by King Felipe VI and can now be visited in the Pereda Building, centrally located and well known by Santander residents and visitors and rehabilitated for the occasion by the studio of David Chipperfield, Pritzker Prize winner three years ago.

Its nearly 10,000 square meters of useful surface are structured on ten levels and approximately a third of them, on five floors, have been allocated to exhibition spaces under the direction of Daniel Vega Pérez.

On the fourth of these floors we will gradually see presentations of the Banco Santander Collection, which, as has been announced, will have a continuous and dynamic role in the programming of this space. The second floor will house various temporary exhibitions in terms of theme and chronology, and the third, an experimentation space for family audiences specially conceived for that purpose. In addition, Faro Santander will have Cubean installation that will link technology and artistic experimentation; with Marsha section focused on Cantabrian artists and collaborative projects associated with the territory; with gastronomic spaces and a terrace with extensive views over the city.

There are three exhibitions that, from today until the first weeks of 2027, we can visit there. We will begin by reviewing a selection of essential works from the funds of Banco Santander – which will continue to have their warehouse in Boadilla del Monte -, from the Renaissance to the present day and from Lucas Cranach to Juan Uslé, under the curatorship of Dolores Jiménez-Blanco.

Its route is organized into four major thematic axes on sacred stories, places and landscapes, still lifes and portraits of types and figures, and features compositions by Titian, El Greco, Velázquez, Zurbarán, Van Dyck, Canaletto, Sorolla, Goya, Beruete, Miró, Chillida, Tàpies, Torner, Chirino, Niki de Saint Phalle, José Guerrero, Soledad Sevilla and Cristina Iglesias. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication, new looks, in which specialists offer renewed readings of these creations.

The second of the exhibitions that Faro Santander is opening is “Modern Mexico in the Gelman Santander Collection”, with works by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, María Izquierdo, Rufino Tamayo, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Gunther Gerzso and Francisco Toledo, completed by numerous photographs.

Treasured over five decades, the Gelman collection stands out for its self-portraits of Kahlo – to which they belong Diego in my thoughts either Self-portrait with monkeys-; Other of its fundamental pieces are Portrait of Natasha Gelman and Calla lilies seller by Diego Rivera, Portrait of Cantinflas by Rufino Tamayo or watercolor dog with broom by Francisco Toledo, one of the latest acquisitions of this collection.

Finally, “Symptomatic surrealism: Leonora Carrington” focuses on the production that this author carried out during her hospitalization in Santander and includes an oil painting on canvas that she donated to her doctor, Dr. Morales: Villa Pilarwhich is exposed after remaining hidden for decades. It contains four anthropomorphic creatures linked to the artist’s recurring imagination: a free horse, Leonora’s alter ego; a rebellious hyena; the peacock, symbol of immortality and resurrection; and a white guard dog.

It is, together with Down Belowan image of residents in the sanatorium converted into hybrid creatures between the human and the animal, from his only canvas now in Santander: the axis of this exhibition are drawings from his notebooks, until now scattered, that the medical staff invited him to draw to organize his thoughts and be able to explain them.

Regarding the Cantabrian artists and groups present in Marshwinners of the first Faro Santander Creation Grants, were Amaia Bregel, Casapalma, Itxaso Iribarren and Germán de la Riva y Salon de beauty. Ane Rodríguez would curate that presentation.

Access to the center is free from September 8 to 17, with prior ticket reservation through the website or at its ticket offices.

SANTANDER LIGHTHOUSE

Paseo de Pereda, 9-12

Santander