LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial is a public cultural entity managed by Fundación La Laboral. Centro de Arte, Creación Industrial y Promoción Cultural and declared of general interest. The purpose of the Foundation is determined in Article 6.1 of its Statutes and is “the promotion and dissemination of art and industrial creation through the management of LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial”.
For more information about LABoral’s governing bodies, management and financing, see the Statutes of the Fundación La Laboral. Centro de Arte, Creación Industrial y Promoción Cultural.
Organizational Framework
LABoral Centro de Arte is an entity with its own legal personality whose supreme governing body is the Board of Trustees of the Foundation. Its members include representatives of the Government of the Principality of Asturias, the Gijón City Council and the Gijón Port Authority.
Governing, management and advisory bodies
The Board of Trustees
Directs and supervises the different areas and lines of action of LABoral Centro de Arte; promotes the implementation of the development program; exercises control and supervision of the remaining bodies of the Board; approves the general programming guidelines, regulations and ordinances, the annual budget and its modifications; approves the forms of management of the services, the staff and the list of jobs, among other functions.
The Executive Committee
Constituted within the Board of Trustees, the Executive Committee is made up of the President, the First Vice President and the Secretary of the Board. Its function is to supervise and control the actions of the President and the Managing Director; to decide on the establishment, management, regulation and suppression of the Foundation’s activities; to formulate the Foundation’s annual accounts and to prepare and propose the Foundation’s Action Plan for subsequent approval by the Board of Trustees.
The Director
Executes the agreements and decrees of the governing bodies of the Board of Trustees; organizes and supervises the services; prepares the cultural and managerial programs, assumes the official representation of the Center; exercises direct command in personnel matters; approves the projects of works and services; economically manages the Center, among other functions.
The Scientific Commission
The Scientific Commission, made up of creators and scholars, critics and professors, experts in technology and professionals in art and industrial creation of national and international renown, is an advisory body to the management. It consists of members who are experts in different areas of specialization in order to advise on the fulfillment of the Foundation’s goals related to cultural promotion, heritage protection and the dissemination of these events.
Members of LABoral’s Board of Trustees
President
Ms. Vanessa Gutiérrez González, representing the Government of the Principality of Asturias.
First Vice President:
Mr. Pablo León Gasalla, representing the Government of the Principality of Asturias.
Members of the Government of Asturias
Mr. Antón García Fernández
Mr. Ivan Aitor Lucas del Amo
Member of the City Council of Gijón
Ms. Montserrat López Moro
Member of the Port Authority of Gijón
Mr. Laureano Lourido Artime
Members of the Executive Committee
President
Ms. Vanessa Gutiérrez González
First Vice President:
Mr. Pablo León Gasalla
Members of the Scientific Committee
Ms Roberta Bosco
Roberta Bosco is a journalist, curator, researcher and lecturer specialising in contemporary art, electronic art and digital culture. She has been writing for the newspaper El País since 1998. She is the Spanish correspondent for Il Giornale dell’Arte, Italy’s leading art magazine.
Her most recent exhibitions include: Orígenes as part of ISEA 2022, Faces at Es Baluard in Palma de Mallorca; Donkijote at Laboral in Gijón and Conexión Remota at MACBA in Barcelona, the first net.art exhibition in a Spanish museum. In 2025, he is curating the project Evitada by Josep Piñol and Aeolia by Solimán López for the Instituto Cervantes.
Mr Bartomeu Marí
Bartomeu Marí is a writer and curator with no institutional affiliation. He is the author of numerous exhibitions on modern and contemporary art and architecture. He has directed the Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI) (2019-2020), the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Korea (2015–2018), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona (MACBA) (2008–2015) and the Witte de With art centre in Rotterdam (1989-2001). He was the author of the first Tabakalera project (2002-2003) and curator of exhibitions at the IVAM (1993-1995) and the Fondation pour l’Architecture (1989-1993). Between 2014 and 2016, he was president of CIMAM.
Mr Jorge Fernández León
Jorge Fernández León has a degree in English philology and a master’s degree in cultural research. He has been a patron of the Spanish Academy in Rome and vice-president of the LABoral patronage. He is a member of the Spanish Network for Sustainable Development and the Scientific Committee of LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, as well as an advisory board member of Periférica magazine and a member of the Cultural Policy Observatory of the Fundación Alternativas. He is the author of the book Nuevos centros culturales para el siglo XXI en España: consenso y conflicto (New Cultural Centres for the 21st Century in Spain: Consensus and Conflict).
Ms Consuelo Vallina
Consuelo Vallina is a visual artist. Since 1978, she has had a distinguished career with solo exhibitions in public and private institutions in Asturias, Spain, Poland, Italy and the United States. She has played an important role in representing the arts sector as president of the Association of Visual Arts of Asturias (AAVA) and the Union of Contemporary Artists of Spain (Unión AC) between 2018 and 2022. Since 2019, she has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Fine Arts of Asturias. In 2024, she was awarded the Medal of Asturias for her contribution to the visual arts.
Mr Iván Fernández Lobo
A key figure in promoting the video game and digital entertainment sector in Europe, Iván Fernández Lobo has created and led some of the most influential platforms for its development and international projection.
Founder of Gamelab, a strategic forum that articulates the debate on the future of the sector on the continent, Iván has contributed decisively to positioning the European industry on the world map, connecting its main leaders with companies, investors and institutions.
Other achievements in his career include the founding of the Spanish Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, promoted to strengthen the sector’s voice in the institutional sphere, and more recently his decisive role in launching the first edition outside the United States of San Diego Comic-Con, the largest popular culture event on the planet, in Malaga.
Mr Ramón Rubio
Doctor of Industrial Engineering and Master’s Degree in Social Studies of Science from the University of Oviedo. Professor and researcher with more than 20 years of experience, 5,000 hours of teaching, 15 JCR articles, 30 projects, 4 books, 3 patents and 2 recognised six-year periods. Co-founder of VÓRTICA, PIXELSHUB and TRIDITIVE. Director of MediaLab at the University of Oviedo, recognised by COTEC and EnlightED for his innovation in higher education and social impact projects such as Superheroes and the Cube of Emotions.
Ms Brenda Chávez
Investigative, data and solutions journalist specialising in sustainability, consumption and culture. She has degrees in journalism and law. She writes for The Guardian, Unbias The News, Equal Times, Muy Interesante, Rockdelux, Vocento and other media outlets. She directs the sustainable consumption podcast Consuma Crudeza (Carne Cruda, eldiario.es). She is the author of Tu consumo puede cambiar el mundo (Your consumption can change the world) (Península, 2017) – now in its third edition – and Al borde de un ataque de compras (On the verge of a shopping spree) (Debate, 2019). She is the co-author of Consumo crítico (Critical consumption) (Catarata, 2021) and Ibex35. Three decades setting the political agenda in Spain and in your pocket (La Marea, 2023) and Alerta Greenwashing (Ed. Polen). She is also the editor of the book Toma de tierra by Yayo Herrero (Caniche, 2023).
Ms María Castellanos
María Castellanos Vicente is an artist and researcher with a PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Vigo. Her thesis, La piel biónica. Membranas tecnológicas como interfaces corporales en la práctica artística (Bionic Skin: Technological Membranes as Bodily Interfaces in Artistic Practice), received the Extraordinary Doctorate Award in 2016. Between 2021 and 2023, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Oslo Metropolitan University, working on the FeLT – Futures of Living Technologies project.
Her artistic practice investigates human sensory limits and develops systems that promote dialogue between different forms of life. Her work invites us to reflect on our interactions from a critical perspective that integrates ecological and feminist sensibilities, questioning the boundaries between the human and the non-human.
She has presented her work at national and international art centres such as Ars Electronica Festival (Austria), LABoral Centro de Arte (Spain), Athens Digital Arts Festival (Greece), House of Electronic Arts Basel (Switzerland), La Gaîté Lyrique (France), Matadero Madrid (Spain), Bozar Electronic Art Festival (Belgium), Onassis Stegi (Greece), V2_Lab (Netherlands) and Pompidou-Metz (France), among others.
Ms Blanca de la Torre
Blanca de la Torre, PhD in Fine Arts, BA in Art History and MA in Exhibition Space Design, has been director of IVAM since April 2025. She was previously chief curator of the Helsinki Biennial, the 15th Cuenca International Biennial and co-artistic director of projects such as Overview Effect (MoCAB, Belgrade) and Con los pies en la T(t)ierra (CAAM, Gran Canaria). She was curator and head of exhibitions at ARTIUM (Vitoria-Gasteiz) and has curated at centres such as the Salzburger Kunstverein, NC-Arte and MUSAC. She has published over a hundred texts and regularly participates in international juries, conferences and committees.
Ms Belén Álvarez Cabrera
Belén Álvarez is a solicitor and managing partner of the Cultural Law department at the Gabeiras law firm. She has over 25 years’ experience advising all kinds of public and private institutions in the cultural sphere, particularly in the music, audiovisual, performing arts and visual arts sectors. Previously, she headed the legal services department of the rights management organisation VEGAP and worked at two national law firms. She regularly participates as a speaker at conferences, seminars and postgraduate studies, and is currently a lecturer on the Master’s Degree in Intellectual Property and the Master’s Degree in Music Industry and Sound Studies, both at the Carlos III University of Madrid. She has also contributed to various publications on cultural law and intellectual property.
Mr Carlos Almela