The ENAIRE Foundation inaugurates a retrospective exhibition of Chema Madoz at the Naves de Gamazo Art Centre to mark his 30th anniversary

From 14 November 2024 to 16 March 2025, visitors will be able to enjoy the retrospective exhibition ‘Una tirada de dados’ (A Roll of the Dice) by Chema Madoz, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the ENAIRE Foundation.

Chema Madoz was honoured on 1 October with the 30th Anniversary Honorary Photography Award from the ENAIRE Foundation

The ENAIRE Foundation has a long history of supporting contemporary photographic art. To mark the Foundation's 10th anniversary in 2005, a special award was established, which, due to its popularity, became an annual event, now with 17 editions held. 

Chema Madoz has been part of the ENAIRE Collection since 2011. His works resonate deeply with audiences, sparking the imagination and inviting viewers to become his accomplices in the stories told through his photographs.

The ENAIRE Foundation 30th anniversary award

The Board of Trustees of the ENAIRE Foundation approved the commemoration of the foundation’s 30th anniversary with an Honorary Photography Award. To this end, a special jury was convened consisting of esteemed figures from the art sector and long-standing collaborators with the Foundation. The Managing Director and the Director of Conservation and Cultural Projects of the ENAIRE Foundation, Margarita Asuar and Ángeles Imaña respectively, proposed presenting the honour to Chema Madoz for being an undisputed global benchmark in photography. This proposal was unanimously approved, and the artist received the award on 1 October. 

“In less than a month, we have organised a major retrospective exhibition at the Naves de Gamazo Art Centre, which opens to the public today, featuring works created by Chema Madoz during a 40-year art career. And in a couple of weeks, we will also present a Chema Madoz art capsule at Seve Ballesteros-Santander Airport”, explains Margarita Asuar, Managing Director of the Foundation.

“The official opening with the artist in attendance will take place on 14 December. This is because once we complete the installation of the exhibition, we begin another crucial phase of production, which includes creating a virtual tour, a virtual gallery, and an audio guide featuring the artist giving a guided tour of the exhibition. There is a great deal of work behind an exhibition, both before and during its run, and we want to highlight this, encouraging the public to engage with the exhibition’s progress. Art exhibitions should be ‘alive’ to captivate audiences, constantly evolving and surprising them with new parallel activities or experiences. For four months, we will delve into the magical universe of Chema Madoz, starting tomorrow, 15 November”, explained Margarita Asuar.

Chema Madoz, “A roll of the dice”

Borja Casani introduces this exhibition, emphasising that in the works gathered for this extensive retrospective, Chema Madoz reveals, with the singular elegance that defines him, the sensory language of objects and their latent meanings.    

Every material is imbued with meaning, and its place in the world gives it significance. 

Madoz works with the polysemic and abstract nature of things to uncover a new order, a new symbolic truth, which he ultimately resolves in images designed to spark the imagination, since only imagination can make us see what we observe in a different way.    

 All the pieces—some of which were specially selected for this exhibition—were physically constructed and finalised by the artist. However, the formal solution, the simple materiality of the work, is not the ultimate goal of his efforts; instead, it serves as a crucial step, allowing the arrangement before the camera to be captured photographically, thereby achieving the precise portrayal of an idea.        

With this exhibition, Chema Madoz invites us to pause for a moment, observe things calmly, find new perspectives, and, ultimately, take a peaceful stroll through perception, exploring the unfathomable meaning of objects.

RTVE documentary “Chema Madoz. Watering the hidden ” 

“To bring audiences closer to the personal universe of this photographic wizard, we have brought back the RTVE documentary 'Chema Madoz. Regar lo escondido' from the programme Imprescindibles on La 2, in which Ana Morente interviews Chema Madoz, offering insights into both the person and the boundless creative artist”, explains the Managing Director of the ENAIRE Foundation.

The exhibition occupies the entire ground floor of the Naves de Gamazo Art Centre, which has been completely transformed to create cleverly designed perspectives by the artist and the curator. A large screen will display the documentary 'Chema Madoz. Regar lo escondido' with English subtitles.

“This exhibition incorporates video and audio in Spanish, along with transcripts in both Spanish and English, as well as a virtual tour and gallery. Accessibility and the democratisation of art, alongside sustainability, are the key parameters guiding the work we do at the ENAIRE Foundation. Regarding sustainability, the walls and pedestals created for the exhibition will be reused”, notes Asuar.

Parallel activities 

Rounding out the exhibition will be parallel activities for all audiences, including the educational community and social groups, as well as specific events organised in collaboration with photography, image, and audiovisual training centres, as well as adult education centres. They will range from an artistic workshop on communicating through different shades of grey, to workshops on haikus, micro-stories, and photography. 

Catalogues of Chema Madoz

The Art Centre Shop is offering for sale all of the catalogues by Chema Madoz, published exclusively by La Fábrica. Forty percent of the proceeds will be donated to those affected by the flooding in the Valencian Community.

The catalogues, which take us on a journey through all of Chema Madoz's art work, are: Fotopoemario, Nuevas Greguerías, Crueldad and Obras Maestras.

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 air traffic control services during the en route and approach phases of all flights to and from Spain and overflights. In addition, it manages communications, navigation and surveillance services from ENAIRE in the airspace and the entire AENA airport network in Spain and provides aerodrome air traffic control services in 21 airports, including the busiest.

ENAIRE is the fourth largest European air navigation service provider, and it is a member of international partnerships A6 Alliance, SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) Joint Undertaking, SESAR Deployment Manager, iTEC, CANSO (Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation) and collaborates closely with ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization).

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.