Chema Madoz, winner of the ENAIRE Foundation's 30th Anniversary Honorary Photography Award
To celebrate its 30th anniversary, the ENAIRE Foundation presented its honorary prize in photography to Chema Madoz “for his unique photographic style, which has made him a global reference with whom the public also connects perfectly”.
Margarita Asuar: “Chema Madoz is a photography wizard who navigates between surrealism and visual poetry, building a magical universe that suggests and invites reflection”
To commemorate the occasion, the ENAIRE Foundation created an extraordinary 30th anniversary photography award worth 17,000 euros, and it will organise an exhibition at the ENAIRE Foundation's Naves de Gamazo Art Centre.
The managing director of the ENAIRE Foundation, Margaret Asuar, explained that "we began the ENAIRE Foundation's 30th anniversary celebration by presenting an honorary prize that recognises not only a great photographer, but also a great person, Chema Madoz, an icon of contemporary photography".
To present this Honorary Prize, the ENAIRE Foundation relied on an extraordinary jury of renowned prestige consisting of Enrique Moral Sandoval, Rafael Canogar, Claude Bussac and María García-Yelo, who have collaborated with the ENAIRE Foundation over its 30-year history, and Ángeles Imaña, Director of Conservation and Cultural Projects, and Margarita Asuar, Managing Director of the ENAIRE Foundation.
The jury met on 1 October and unanimously approved presenting the ENAIRE Foundation's 30th Anniversary Honorary Photography Award to Chema Madoz.
Margarita Asuar stressed that “it is an honour for the ENAIRE Foundation to express our recognition with this Honorary Prize to a Spaniard who is a global leader in contemporary photography”.
[©️Chema Madoz. ENAIRE collection of contemporary art. Vegap2024]
A wizard of contemporary photography
In the justification for presenting the award, the Managing Director of the ENAIRE Foundation explained "that all of us on this jury consider Chema Madoz a wizard of contemporary photography who navigates between surrealism and visual poetry, building a magical universe, with his own language, a hugely creative personality, which suggests and invites reflection. With the added bonus of being the only photographer whom AI has not been able to replicate in research conducted at the University of Seville".
Chema Madoz has already received prizes and awards nationally and abroad. In 2019, he received the Gold Medal of Merit in Fine Arts; in 2000, he received the National Photography Award. He has also been presented the PHotoEspaña Award and the Higashikawa Award. In addition, the Reina Sofía Museum dedicated to him its first retrospective to a living Spanish photographer.
[©️Chema Madoz. ENAIRE collection of contemporary art. Vegap2024]
Chema Madoz at Naves de Gamazo
Together with receiving the ENAIRE Foundation's 30th Anniversary Honorary Photography Award, there will also be an exhibit at the Naves de Gamazo Art Centre in Santander from mid-November to mid-March, "which will allow us to enjoy the talent of Chema Madoz, not only in Santander, but also in a virtual room accessible from anywhere in the world thanks to the new digital museum resources we are implementing", explained the Foundation's director.
[Chema Madoz].
About ENAIRE Foundation
Is a cultural institution of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility that, in addition to managing, preserving and exhibiting the ENAIRE Collection of Contemporary Art, engages in a comprehensive annual programme of activities that focus on aeronautical art and culture. Notably, it is one of the institutions that currently provides the most support to photography through its annual prizes - which have become a benchmark for professional photographers - and by hosting exhibits.
It is the only foundation in Spain that combines the two seemingly disparate themes of art and aeronautical culture, bringing them together by undertaking a programme of activities that promote the study, research, knowledge and dissemination of aeronautical culture, integrating history and modernity to raise awareness of the world of aviation in our country.
The Naves de Gamazo are the first permanent home of the ENAIRE Collection of Contemporary Art, an example of collaboration between government agencies that was made possible thanks to the partnership and joint efforts of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, the Government of Cantabria, through the Office for Culture, Tourism and Sport, and the Port Authority of Santander, which share the operating expenses of the centre in order to ensure the present and future viability of this cultural project.
ENAIRE Foundation is implementing digital museum resources to boost the democratisation of art and make it accessible from anywhere in the world. These new museum resources are now available on the Foundation's website.
About ENAIRE
ENAIRE is the air navigation service provider in Spain.
As a company of the Ministry of Sustainable Transport and Mobility, it provides en route control services for all flights and overflights from five control centres in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Gran Canaria and Palma, as well as approach services to every airport in the country.
In addition, 46 airports receive communication, navigation and surveillance services from ENAIRE, which also maintains their air traffic control systems, and 21 of them, including the country's busiest airports, rely on its aerodrome air traffic control services.
ENAIRE is Europe's fourth largest air traffic manager and participates in the A6 Alliance, a coalition of air navigation providers responsible for over 80% of European air traffic, and which is seeking to modernise the air traffic management system. It is also a member of other international alliances promoting the Single European sky, such as SESAR Joint Undertaking, SESAR Deployment Manager, iTEC, CANSO and ICAO.
ENAIRE, as the responsible agency identified by the Ministry of Sustainable Transport and Mobility to implement the U-Space system in Spain, will, through its digital platform, provide the Common Information Services (CIS), which are essential to facilitate U-space services to drones and Urban Air Mobility in cooperation with local air traffic services, so that all types of aircraft can fly safely in the same airspace.
ENAIRE has received the highest score in Europe on the aviation safety key performance indicator for four years in a row. It has also been awarded the EFQM 600 Seal for its safe, efficient, innovative and sustainable management of air navigation services.
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