Derivada

Derivada is a programme for artistic creation, investigation and dissemination aimed at Spanish creators whose work is related to science. Through this initiative, the foundation aims to promote women in art, support the production of graphic works and build bridges between art and science.

Gabriela Bettini was the artist selected for the 3rd edition of the programme. Her engraving, Topografía del borrado (Wapití), is a hymn to nature and a profound cri- tique of the relationship between Western culture and nature. Based on a diorama from the American Museum of Natural History in New York, her work invites viewers to reflect on the worrying extinction of natural habitats and species. An explanatory text by curator and art critic Katrin Steffen accompanies the piece and helps to elucidate its meaning.

Fundación Banco Santander Award for Artistic Production

In collaboration with Open Studio,   the   foundation launched the 8th edition of the Fundación Banco Santander Award for Artistic Production to promote the work of young creators working outside commercial circuits. The winner will receive a three-month residency at a Madrid studio and a stipend to cover production costs.

A committee made up of several professionals from the contemporary art world and members of the foundation and Open Studio awarded the prize to Mònica Planes, an artist with a multidisciplinary approach that goes beyond the merely artistic realm. The committee praised the experimental nature of her work, in which she uses sculpture to investigate how the architectural spaces we inhabit influence our movements.

The residency for this edition has been postponed to spring and summer 2021 with the expectation that the public health situation will have improved by then. For the second year running, it will take place at the Nave Oporto group studio in the Carabanchel district of Madrid.

CNIO Arte

With support from Fundación Banco Santander, the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas (CNIO) organised the third edition of CNIO Arte, an initiative whereby contemporary creators draw inspiration from research by renowned scientists. On this occasion, artist Carmen Calvo and paleoanthropologist Juan Luis Arsuaga visited the excavations taking place at the Neanderthal sites in Pinilla del Valle (Madrid). The trip resulted in four pieces using mixed techniques, in which Calvo reconstructs images using objects and fragments, just as Arsuaga pieces together the past during a paleontological excavation.

The pieces were exhibited at CNIO from 20 February to 3 March, and at the ARCOmadrid contemporary art fair from 26 February to 1 March. All profits from the sale of these works were used to fund cancer research at CNIO.