Tour through the exhibition “Calder stories”

Welcome to Calder Stories, an exhibition of never told stories about Alexander Calder’s oeuvre. Projects that never came to be but that left wonderful stories behind them.

And why an exhibition on the subject of unrealized works? Because, as Hans Ulrich Obrist-curator of the exhibition-, said:
“Knowing their dreams, is knowing the person.”

At Centro Botín we want you to get to know Calder’s work and, through it, to know the person behind the artist. We always want to offer you a new perspective of art and we want it to become part of your world. In order to offer you this new view of Calder, we consulted with the Calder Foundation, led by Calder’s grandson, Alexander S. C. Rower.

The first person that Obrist and Rower called upon was Renzo Piano. Piano designed the largest-ever retrospective of the artist in Torino in 1983, so Obrist and Rower asked Renzo Piano to design this exhibition as well. Piano’s exhibition design reflects the same concepts he used while designing the Centro Botín.

Platforms levitate, each of them presenting a story. Each story, a village. The movement of people walking amongst the works is as organic as it is in a city or in the Jardines de Pereda. The design does not follow a chronological or geographical order. So, let yourself flow through the space and go wherever you want. As Piano states: “the visitor is 50% of the building,” and in this case, also of the exhibition.

And now, would you like to meet Calder? I’m sure you have something in common with him. We will get started and when we finish you will be able to confirm that.

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