Opening New Paths for Society
By Miquel Molins, President of Banco Sabadell Foundation
The Banco Sabadell Group is keenly aware of the economic and social transformation of our surrounding environs and of the innovations occurring across all fields. And we lend particular attention to new entrepreneurs, a highly qualified collective with great potential, for they embody these notions of innovation and social transformation within the economic sphere. In times like the present, a company such as ours, with its long-standing commitment with enterprises, cannot overlook potential great ideas and projects whose ingeniousness, when coupled with effort and seriousness, open up new paths for society.
Paying heed to these paths also entails a reflection on the past, on the legacy of other times that can act as a guideline for future action. In that regard, Zon-e’s research and exhibition project on Asturias’ cuencas or mining areas is an excellent and highly germane example of a cultural project geared towards rethinking said legacy. Learning from the Cuencas basically revolves around architecture and landscape, around the heritage that concerns the specific area of the Principality of Asturias, but it is also an incentive to imagine how to make the most of our experience in order to create and to innovate. As such, the goals of Learning from the Cuencas are in perfect consonance with the vision and values of Banco Sabadell.
For the Banco Sabadell Group and its Foundation, another exciting point of the initiative set in motion by Zon-e Arquitectos and LABoral is its potential to harness talent in two fields such as art creation and research. Learning from the Cuencas is at once research and exhibition, a fact that gives the project the potential to generate a number of activities for a diversity of publics and also to engage with various agents and institutions. In other words, the project shares with the Banco Sabadell Foundation a mandate to encourage talent in its multiple facets. Our prizes to reward scientific talent (Fundación Banco Herrero Award to Research in Social Sciences; and the Banco Sabadell Award to Biomedical Research) add to the initiatives of the Banco Sabadell Foundation in the areas of art and cultural innovation, most notably in the foundation’s sponsorship of activities such as the Loop Video-Art Fair, the Art<30 Competition, or the Week of Culture.
But apart from the above, with Learning from the Cuencas, Banco Sabadell and its Foundation wish to demonstrate their ongoing commitment with the Principality of Asturias. In a context defined by the consolidation and growth of its activities throughout the whole of Spain, Banco Sabadell does not wish to neglect those areas where, as in the case of Asturias, it is most deeply rooted. A project such as this, where elements of local commitment are paramount, poses a wonderful opportunity for Banco Sabadell to reaffirm its aspiration to back innovation connected to the local territory.
Therefore we warmly welcome this exciting project that we have the honour to co-produce. I particularly wish to congratulate the curators for their work of research and also all the individuals who have devoted their efforts to make this innovative project a reality.
