CaixaForum proposes a journey to the heart of art and science

Vicente López Portaña, The Lady of Delicado de Imaz, around 1836. Oil that forms part of the Prado and will be seen in the exhibition 'The Century of Portraits'. / CR

Archaeology, photography, comics and cinema, among the proposals that will travel through 80 cities in Spain and Portugal

The »la Caixa» Foundation presented this Wednesday its proposals for the 2022-2023 season: 30 exhibitions at the CaixaForum centers and at the Cosmo Caixa Science Museum, and 8 traveling exhibitions that will tour the Spanish and Portuguese geography. Of the set of titles, a dozen are premieres. The program invites the public to travel to the heart of archaeology, art, science, photography, comics and cinema with proposals in collaboration with major international institutions, such as the British Museum, the London Science Museum and the Museum of Science of Boston.

Notable novelties include a scientific approach to the creation of Pixar characters, a journey through all the facets of the 19th century portrait with the Prado National Museum, a journey through the history of experimental photography with the Center Pompidou, a a tour of the most cinematographic and historical spies with La Cinémathèque Française and a visit to the private holdings of great artists in the »la Caixa Foundation Collection of Contemporary Art».

CaixaForum Madrid, which will host science exhibitions for the first time, will open the season with an exhibition dedicated to the brilliant inventor Nikola Tesla. With the intention of continuing to delve into the ties between art and science, the season will include an exhibition of National Geographic photographs dedicated to color at the CosmoCaixa Science Museum and another itinerant one on the beauty of the nanocosm.

On the other hand, three first-rate initiatives will be launched in a season marked by the union of technology and culture with the arrival of the new digital platform CaixaForum+, the interactive guide of the Universe Hall of the CosmoCaixa Science Museum and the Vertical Forest of CaixaForum Barcelona.

The deputy general director of the »la Caixa» Foundation, Elisa Durán, and the corporate director of the »la Caixa» Foundation's Department of Culture and Science, Ignasi Miró, were in charge of presenting the institution's cultural program for the new course, an event in which the corporate director of Education and Marketing, Xavier Bertolín, and the directors of the CaixaForum centers and the CosmoCaixa Science Museum also participated. The new season will run under the motto 'We believe in culture. We grow in culture', in order to offer the public a trip to the heart of the world of archaeology, art, science, photography, comics and cinema.

The 30 exhibitions, 4,000 activities and 8 shows will travel to more than 80 cities in Spain and Portugal.

The main novelties of the season are specified in 10 exhibition premieres that open up to multiple forms of artistic expression through cinema, photography or music. 5 of them will be carried out in collaboration with large national and international institutions. On the other hand, three first-rate cultural initiatives will be launched: the launch of the new digital platform CaixaForum+, the interactive guide to the Universe Room and the Flooded Forest of the CosmoCaixa Science Museum and the Vertical Forest of CaixaForum Barcelona.

Premieres, from spies to portraits... and Pixar

As for exhibition premieres, 'The Century of the Portrait' stands out. The image of 19th century society, with great works from the Prado National Museum. CaixaForum Barcelona will premiere this exhibition, which will be the first dedicated to 19th-century portraiture in Spain and will involve a journey through time to explore all facets of portraiture: from the portrait as a symbol of power to the portrait as a social phenomenon. In the exhibition you can find works by Francisco de Goya, Vicente López, Federico de Madrazo, Eduardo Rosales, Ignacio Pinazo, Joaquín Sorolla and Ignacio Zuloaga, among others.

The new season will also allow us to get closer to the memorable characters designed by Pixar. Behind the characters of our favorite animated films there is a long process in which creativity is mixed in an indispensable way with technology, engineering, art and mathematics, as The Science of Pixar relates. This exhibition, which will premiere in Barcelona at the CosmoCaixa Science Museum, is developed by the Boston Science Museum in collaboration with Pixar Animation Studios and is eminently interactive. The exhibition will allow visitors to give Pixar classic figures movement, project brightness and shadows, and work on the creation of 3D virtual worlds.

Without leaving cinema behind, another international collaboration comes with La Cinémathèque Française. CaixaForum Madrid will host Top Secret. Cinema and espionage, which analyzes the fruitful relationship between these two areas, highlighting the importance of both iconic characters from the seventh art and other myths of our contemporary history. With a chronological and thematic journey, the exhibition breaks down espionage in the history of cinema looking for points of contact between the profession of actor and the figure of the spy (the disguise, the concealment, the game); between fiction and historical facts; between the props and the gadgets and the technology deployed by the real agents of the intelligence services.

The exhibition, which seeks a mirror game between film directors and spies, both as recorders and "forgers" of the world, will unfold a complete panorama of this fascinating universe through a wide range of films, series and objects -such as some from the KGB—from public and private collections, as well as drawings, illustrations and works of contemporary art. The protagonists are great real and fictional spies, from Mata Hari and Carrie Mathison to James Bond and Edward Snowden, with a special focus on female spies, considered the great forgotten.

Photography, protagonist

Photography will also be the protagonist with three premieres this season. CaixaForum Madrid and CaixaForum Barcelona will host the new exhibition Expanded Visions. Photography and experimentation resulting from the third collaboration with the Center Pompidou. The exhibition covers the history of experimental photography from the beginning of the 20th century to the present through more than 260 works. The project proposes a reading of the experimental photographic current through the dialogue between historical and contemporary works, and presents the first photographic experimentations of the famous William Klein.

On the other hand, The Colors of the World will arrive at the CosmoCaixa Science Museum and at CaixaForum Zaragoza, before traveling outside their own centres, to marvel at precious photographs by National Geographic authors. All of them reflect in their images the wide range of blues, oranges, greens, reds and whites that make up our planet.

Nanocosm by Michael Benson. The reality hidden from the human eye will provide visitors to the CosmoCaixa Science Museum with a new look at the hidden beauty of our planet's flora and fauna, which can only be seen thanks to the use of the latest technologies to visualize microscopic life. Through his photography, filmmaker, artist and writer Michael Benson will transport viewers into a fascinating nanoscopic universe beyond what the human eye can see.