Spain’s major new arts hub Centro Botín to open with show dedicated to artist Carsten Höller
Spain’s major new contemporary arts centre, Centro Botín, designed by The Shard’s architect Renzo Piano, is complete and will open in June 2017. Costing around $106m and opening with an exhibition dedicated to artist Carsten Höller, the new cultural landmark in Santander is also Piano’s first building in Spain.
The “winged” 10,300 square metre structure takes the form of a bisected capsule, wrapped in 270,000 ceramic discs that “reflect the changing colours of sea and sky”. It also has floor-to-ceiling glass overlooking the waterfront, on a site formerly used as a ferry port car park.
Carsten Höller’s opening show will feature new works alongside well-known interactive installations including Elevator Bed. Visitors will be able to book a night in Elevator Bed, which is “equipped with all the comforts of a luxury hotel room,” where they will experience the rest of the exhibition as the bed rotates and goes up and down, rising up to 3.5 metres above the ground.
The artist’s new piece commissioned by Fundación Botín is a site-specific light installation called 7.8Hz, “active from sunset to sunrise” in the centre’s gardens. A sculpture by Cristina Iglesias will also be installed in the gardens.
Centro Botín also opens with a show on Francisco de Goya, the latter of which will feature 80 drawings by the Spanish artist selected from the Museo del Prado collection. The exhibition is titled Agility and Audacity. Goya drawings.
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