International open call: 29th annual Visual Arts Grants

Fundación Botín is pleased to announce their 29th Visual Arts Grants (2022), offering six scholarships for artists of any nationality with an expected duration of nine months and an endowment of 23,000 euros each.

The Visual Arts Grants are intended to support the development of personal and research projects. Of the six grants, one will be reserved for an artist who is Spanish or a resident in Spain (for at least five years immediately prior to applying for the grant), under 30 years of age, who wants to spend time abroad to continue their work, their studies or a residence.

In addition to the financial support, the grants programme will showcase the works created by the chosen artists in a collective exhibition at Centro Botín, Itinerarios, which this year celebrates its 27th iteration. The works will be presented not only in the exhibition gallery but also in other spaces or formats better suited to making the artists’ research public, as may be the case with performance, participatory activities or video cycles, among others. At the end of the grant period, Fundación Botín continues its commitment with the artists by closely following their career and, where appropriate, by purchasing works for the Collection.

Artists interested in opting for a grant should make an initial application using the registration form available on the websites of the Fundación Botín and Centro Botín, and submit the remainder of the requisite documentation on paper by May 6. Every application received will be studied by a specially convened external jury of artists, curators and professionals, with different members each year. From July 18, the final decision of the jury will be made public on both of the aforementioned websites.

Since the Visual Arts Grants were launched in 1993 they have benefitted more than 200 creative talents by acting as a dynamic stimulus to contemporary art and supporting contemporary artists seeking to develop a research project in the 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.  This year the 59th Venice Biennale will feature works by Pedro Nevés Marqués in the Portuguese Pavilion, by Santiago Borja in the Mexican Pavilion, and by Teresa Solar and June Crespo, both in the central exhibition. Leonor Serrano Rivas will have a solo exhibition at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, while the Palacio de Cristal in Madrid will host a selection of Carlos Bunga’s work. In addition, Jorge Ribalta will have a retrospective at the MAPFRE Madrid foundation.

Itinerarios XXVI
Until May 15, 2022

Itinerarios is an annual exhibition featuring works by the eight artists selected in Fundación Botín’s latest open call for its Visual Arts grants. Through the works of Olga Balema, Eli Cortiñas, June Crespo, Mario Espliego, Antoni Hervàs, Salomé Lamas, Anna Moreno and Bruno Pacheco, the exhibition affords unique insights into the latest debates taking place in the art world. The works on view weave a whole series of subtle sentient connections with each other, formally and conceptually destroying the illusion of independence that has been corroding away at our habitats, vitality and imagination.