The Minister of Public Works presents two new permanent venues belonging to the ENAIRE Foundation at ARCO

5 million euros will be invested in remodelling both venues with funds generated for the 1,5% Cultural

The Minister of Public Works, Ínigo de la Serna, has presented today at the 2018 ARCOmadrid International Art Fair two new permanent venues belonging to the ENAIRE Foundation. Naves de Gamazo, in Santander, and La Arquería de Nuevos Ministerios, in Madrid, will be home to the main body of the foundation's collection of Contemporary Art.

De la Serna visited today ENAIRE Foundation's stand (7H03), which is showing, under the name “Under construction” and by means of photographs and video documentaries, how the future venues will look. These venues will exhibit the ENAIRE Collection of Contemporary Art.

These works of art are currently located at the premises of the Ministry of Public Works, ENAIRE, Aena and in several specialised warehouses under deposit and conservation. De la Serna emphasised that this initiative will exhibit all this public and artistic heritage for the enjoyment of everybody as of the second half of 2019.

The ENAIRE foundation has also launched an open tender process for curation, with the purpose of reinterpreting the concept of the collection and organising the opening exhibitions in the new art centres of Santander and Madrid.

The two art centres will be connected: they will share activities and ‘interchange exhibitions’, with the purpose of initiating a dialogue between both centres; present the ENAIRE Collection from different exhibitory viewpoints; and enrich the cultural offer of both cities. The Ministry of Public Works, through the ENAIRE Foundation, will invest 5 million euros in remodelling both venues with funds generated for the 1,5% Cultural.

Naves de Gamazo in Santander

Naves de Gamazo is a jewel of industrial architecture in Santander. Named after Germán Gamazo, who served as Minister for Public Works under Sagasta, this building consists of two warehouses that add up to around 100 square metres of exhibitory space. The oldest warehouse, erected in 1908, is the largest and most valuable, while the other warehouse, built in 1950, has a smaller surface area.

It is a singular building that will become the permanent home of the ENAIRE Collection in 2019 following the agreement entered between the ENAIRE Foundation and the Santander Port Authority on 28 October 2017. According to the agreement, the Foundation will hold these warehouses for a period of up to 20 years, which will be renewable for successive five-year periods up to a maximum of 50 years.

The basis of the project is the unification of both spaces, recovering the original appearance and structure of the first of the warehouses, in parallel with the renovation and modernisation of the more recent warehouse.  The architectural design includes incorporating the views of the Bay inside the hall by opening one of its side façades with a transparent enclosure.

The aim is that the completion of the project not only significantly enriches the cultural offer, but also the landscape, the city's appeal and the bay of Santander, while ensuring a cultural and social return on the investment in the city by means of an accessible, attractive, versatile and sustainable space that gives a new life to the warehouses as a Centre of Art. To this end, the ENAIRE Foundation will invest two million euros in its remodelling.

La Arquería de Nuevos Ministerios in Madrid

La Arquería de Nuevos Ministerios has a surface area of 2,400 square metres and is located at the headquarters of the Ministry of Public Works in Madrid (Paseo de la Castellana, 67). This building was inaugurated in October 1983 as an exhibition hall for the former Ministry of Housing.

It is a space where the most relevant works of architecture of our period have been shown and in which the ENAIRE Foundation has organised illustration, photography, aviation and air transportation exhibitions, as well as different institutional events.

In its remodelling into a permanent venue for the ENAIRE Collection, the Foundation will invest three million euros in an architectural project that will modernise the facilities and adapt them to be able to exhibit the works of art all year round.

With regard to new space's programming, the ENAIRE Foundation will work together with the Directorate-General for Architecture, Housing and Land of the Ministry of Public Works towards continuing to house exhibitions and projects that encourage the dissemination, promotion and research of the architectural heritage.

About the ENAIRE Foundation

The objectives of the ENAIRE Foundation include promoting aeronautical culture and conserving, expanding and disseminating the artistic heritage of ENAIRE. This heritage comprises an impressive collection of Spanish and Ibero-American art that, chronologically, starts in the second half of the twentieth century and continues up to the present day, incorporating almost 1,200 paintings, sculptures, photographs, works of graphic art, works on paper and media art.

The ENAIRE Collection of Contemporary Art includes works by artists such as Barceló, Tàpies, Equipo Crónica, Picasso, Úrculo, Arroyo, Alfaro and Genovés, as well as photographers such as García-Alix, Daniel Canogar and Chema Madoz.

Part of the Collection will be exhibited at the Palacete del Embarcadero in Santander and as a travelling exhibition in venues of the Instituto Cervantes in Paris, Bruseñas, Toulouse and Bordeaux.

The public corporate entity ENAIRE is a company designated by the Ministry of Public Works to manage the fourth largest airspace in Europe in terms of traffic through 5 control centres, 22 control towers and a network of air traffic infrastructure and equipment. In 2017, ENAIRE managed over 2 million flights and 250 million people.