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Artist Clara Montoya. Crédito: AECID/RAER, Miguel Lizana Barco
- CNIO’s Artist Residency programme, in collaboration with FECYT, aims to nurture talent in art and research, promoting cooperation between these two areas
- The artist has been selected for her “outstanding artistic career and future prospects” as well as her “commitment to research”, says the judges’ report
The artist Clara Montoya has been chosen as CNIO’s first Artist Residency, an initiative of the National Cancer Research Centre in collaboration with FECYT that funds a six-month stay for the artist at CNIO to create one or more works inspired by cancer research.
As explained in their report, the judges chose Montoya “for her excellent artistic career, her commitment to research, collaboration with public and private institutions, the strength of her work, the balance struck between the conceptual and the poetic in her work, and its coherence with the objectives pursued by the CNIO.”
The judges also gave special mentions to the artists Laura Lio and Juan Zamora.
They also highlighted parity in participation, as well as the quality of the works presented, by artists of both European and Latin American origin.
The jury was composed of the artists Amparo Garrido, Marina Vargas and Semíramis González; the professor emeritus of Aesthetics, historian and art critic Carlos Jiménez; and the director of CNIO, Maria A.Blasco .
Clara Montoya (Madrid 1974) trained at the Royal College of Art in London, where she received the Thames and Hudson/RCA Award for Excellence in Sculpture, and at The Cooper Union (New York). She has also received grants from: Fundación Marcelino Botín, la Cité Internationnale des Arts (Paris), the Junge Akademie der Kunst (Berlin), the Real Academia de España in Rome, and Casa Wabi in Mexico.
Her work has been exhibited at institutions such as ADK (Branderburger Tor, Berlin) and Kunstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin), Fundación Antonino y Cinia (Cerezales), CDAN (Huesca), and the CCCC (Valencia). Her work is also displayed in the Reina Sofia National Museum of Contemporary Art (Spain), the Contemporary Art Collection of the European Parliament, CA2M (Madrid), Inelcom, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Istanbul (Turkey), the Gfzk (Germany), Seomi & Tuus Collection (South Korea), the Nirox Foundation (SA), the Madeira Collection of Drawing (Portugal), the National Collection of Spanish Contemporary Art, Fundación Marcelino Botin, and CAAC (Malaga).
Science and art inspire each other
CNIO Artist Residency, organised with the support of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), is part of CNIO Arte, the pioneering initiative that promotes the relationship between art and science launched by CNIO five years ago. Both programmes, CNIO Artist Residency and CNIO Arte, are based on the idea that science and art can inspire each other and are indispensable for interpreting the world.
CNIO Artist Residency offer artists the opportunity to live for half a year alongside CNIO research staff and learn about the desire of scientists to advance research against cancer or other related diseases.
The artist selected at each edition receives 6,000 euros to create their work or works of art and cover their travel and accommodation expenses. The creations resulting from the programme may be exhibited at CNIO and at the events of institutions involved in the project.
CNIO and art
CNIO has made a major commitment to the art world since the creation of CNIO Arte in 2017, a programme organised with the help of Fundación Banco Santander.
Every year, CNIO ARTE brings together leading scientists and artists from around the world and culminates with the exhibition of the work created by the artist for the occasion, which is exhibited both at CNIO and at the ARCO Contemporary Art Fair.