David Ferrando wins the DKV Seguros-Álvarez Margaride grant with his project Culto Solar
The work will be produced at Plataforma 0, Centro de Producción de LABoral and will be shown from June 21 at the Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial de Gijón
CATOPTROPHILIA , 2013, digital animation with sound by David Ferrando
Culto Solar, by the artist David Ferrando (Negreira, A Coruña, 1978), has been selected as the winning project of the DKV Seguros – Álvarez Margaride Production Grant, announced jointly by the insurance company and LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial de Gijón. David Ferrando will develop his project during an two-month art residency at Plataforma 0. Centro de Producción de LABoral, as a previous step to its presentation to the public from June 21 to September 14 of this year.
Culto Solar is a video installation that consists of a high-definition projection on a free-standing screen, a large format drawing occupying a good part of the floor of the exhibition area, a round showcase, as if it were an altar, with several elements inside, and a piece of video for monitor related with sculpture.
David Ferrando, whose art work shows his interest in the hybridisation of cosmic elements, technology and socio-political organisation, and how it has been managed in different moments of history. The starting point for Culto Solar is the fact that from different perspectives we can see the persistence of pyramidal structures of power, run by elites that have used diverse narratives along the centuries to legitimise their mediator role between nature and society. In this regard, the artist is very interested in “how the current mismatch between technological development and political involution seems to take us towards some kind of post-cybernetic neo-medievalism”.
Born in Negreira, A Coruña (1978), David Ferrando Giraut lives and works in London. He is a graduate in Fine Arts by the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia y MFA in Fine Arts by Goldsmiths College, University of London, where he is actually completing a PhD programme. He is Studio Practise tutor at MFA of Fine Arts. In 2010 he was one of the eight video-artists selected for LUX Associate Artists Programme in London.
Among his recent exhibitions, the following should be emphasised: Veraneantes, MARCO, Vigo, 2013; It is a Place of Force, RE-MAP, Athens, 2013; MACO 2013, México; ARCOmadrid 2013; Cristalino, Galería Bacelos, Madrid and Vigo, 2012; 41 International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2012; Swollen Jungle, Union Gallery, London, 2012; The Fanstasist, MACUF, A Coruña, 2011; Topophobi, Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London, The Bluecoat, Liverpool and Spacex, Exeter, 2011-2012; Against Gravity, ICA, London, 2010; Journeys End in Lovers Meetings”, Galería Visor, Valencia, 2010, Valencia; 10/12, Brussels, 2011; Time Capsules, The Gallery Soho, London, 2011; Everything is Out There, at Inéditos 2010, La Casa Encendida, Madrid; Between a Hole and a Home”, James Taylor Gallery, London, 2010; Strange Things Are Hapening, ASPEX, Portsmouth, 2009; o Situación, CGAC, Santiago de Compostela, 2008.
The jury that selected the proposal, out of the 54 that applied for the grant, has been chaired by Josep Santacreu, CEO of DKV Seguros, and integrated by Iñaki Martínez Antelo, Director of MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporánea, Vigo and Ferrán Barenblit, Director of Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, CA2M, Madrid, as external juries; Juan Bautista Peiró, University Professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of San Carlos de Valencia, and Alicia Ventura, Director of Gestión Arte Ventura and adviser and curator of the project Arte DKV Seguros, as members appointed by DKV Seguros; and Lucía García, Managing Director of LABoral; and Patricia Villanueva, Manager of Exhibitions, as members appointed by Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial de Gijón. Luis Framis de Ferrater, of the Department of Communication and Corporate Responsibility of DKV seguros, acted as secretary.
The DKV Seguros – Álvarez Margaride production grant results from a 5-year partnership agreement between LABoral and DKV Seguros. Both entities undertake to carry out the organisation, production and exhibition of the selected work. This call pays homage to the entrepreneur José Luis Álvarez Margaride, born in Gijón and president of DKV Seguros until his death in 2010, because of his business committment with Asturias and his interest in art, culture and scientific research.
As set out in the bases of the call, it is aimed at selecting a work that uses new technologies, in an extended vision, created by a Spanish artist or an artist legally residing in Spain, born in or after 1972. The grant is worth €10.000 gross -€2.000 as fees and €8.000 for production costs-, in addition to granting access to all technical and human resources of LABoral.
LABoral intends to continue developing its programme for 2014 around the support of research and the production of new works, through the development of residency programmes for artists and work groups. The Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial will continue inviting creators and developers to use the spaces and technical resources available in its Production Centre, Plataforma 0, in many occasions by means of open calls, as in this case. Thus the Centre consolidates its support for the production of projects in the intersection between art, science and new technologies.
This will result in new works that, subsequently, will be shown in the halls of LABoral, as a previous step to their roaming around other national and international venues. In other cases, the result of the residencies will translate into workshops or presentations, where creators will show the results of their research to varying audiences.
The health insurance company DKV Seguros has created ARTERIA DKV, a programme aimed at launching actions that foster art creation, always in relation with health and the improvement of people’s quality of life. Thus, true to its commitment to art, DKV intends to boost innovation and creativity in general among the insurance and health industry, in addition to fostering it as a value of society.
Grupo DKV Seguros is a part of Munich Health, the division that gathers the health companies of Munich Re since 2006. The insurance group Munich Re, in the field of health, combines its global knowledge in insurance and reinsurance, including services.
In Spain, Grupo DKV has a nationwide presence, with a wide network of offices and doctors with almost 2.000 employees, and providing service to around 2 million customers. Its vision is to offer its customers a quality-based management, with an attitude of permanent innovation in products and services and with a focus on health and personal insurance policies.
