Tenerifeand more specifically the access esplanade to TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, will become today the epicenter of cultural life in the country. The King and Queen will preside over the award ceremony of the Gold Medals for Merit in Fine Arts at the Cabildo de Tenerife contemporary art center. The Fundación de Arte y Pensamiento Martín Chirino will be one of the institutions distinguished by the award.
The impressive building designed by the Swiss architectural studio Herzog & de Meuron, inaugurated in 2008, will serve as the setting for an event that will bring together the main Spanish cultural figures and institutions in the capital of Tenerife. To host a ceremony of this size, the cultural facility will remain closed to the public in the morning and will resume its cultural activity from 4:00 p.m.
Scheduled at 12:30 p.m., a total of 32 awards will be distributed at the event organized by the Ministry of Culture. Two of them will be posthumous. They are those corresponding to the writer Almudena Grandes and the tenured professor of Civil Law at the University of Barcelona, specialist in intellectual property, Ramón Casas.
Among the winners are the bailaora Maribel Gallardo, the poet Julia Uceda, the film director Agustí Villaronga, the actor Javier Bardem and the musical duo Amaral, as well as Javier Gurruchaga, Paloma San Basilio, Anton Reixa and Mayte Martín.
They will also receive a badge the Black Week of Gijón, the Max Aub Foundation.
Two recognitions are awarded posthumously: that of Almudena Grandes and that of Ramón Casas
Other winners are the graphic novel author Paco Roca, the plastic artist Jaume Plensa, the businessman and theater producer Daniel Martínez de Obregón and the photographer Isabel Steva Hernández (Colita), as well as the lyrical singer Saioa Hernández del Río.
In addition, the trajectory of the historian and Hispanist Ian Gibson, the film director Iciar Bollain, the fashion designer Ana Locking, the photographer Chema Conesa, the composer Teresa Catalán and the writer Juan Muñoz have been recognized.
The list of winners also includes the cultural manager Genis Matabosch, the illustrator and writer Carme Solé, the cultural cooperative Drac Mágic, the singer-songwriter Pablo Guerrero, the Board of Qualification, Valuation and Export of Historical Heritage Assets and the video game developers Francisco Portalo and Francisco Suarez.
The Gold Medals for Merit in Fine Arts distinguish individuals and corporations, institutions, legal persons, agencies or public or private entities that have excelled in the field of artistic and cultural creation or have provided notorious services in the promotion, development or dissemination of art and culture or in the conservation of artistic heritage.
Until 1995, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports annually awarded Medals of Merit in Fine Arts in its Gold and Silver modalities. As of 1996, only Gold Medals are awarded. This award is included among the Performing Arts and Music awards and medals awarded each year by the ministry.
Last year, for example, the well-remembered singer Pau Donés received this award posthumously. The Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, the composer Hans Zimmer, Alex de la Iglesia, the actor Antonio Resines, Motxo Armendáriz, the late designer Andrés Sardá and the actress Enma Suárez.
The quality and quantity of winners in each edition reinforces the category of awards that are, year after year, a festival for culture.
