ACCIONA helps the Prado Museum to open its doors to contemporary portraiture

Jodice's audiovisual display turns the Prado's visitors into protagonists of his art work and takes a collective look at modern society.

ACCIONA, the Spanish infrastructure, renewables, water and services company, has helped the Prado Museum to open its doors for the first time to contemporary art by sponsoring "The Prado by Francesco Jodice", an audiovisual in which the museum's visitors are the protagonists and become part of the museum itself.

The sound and image montage created by Francesco Jodice consists of a video installation and a film using recordings and footage-obtained from 400 volunteer visitors-which will be projected inside the Museum as a tribute and a gesture of complicity with visitors. The show will run from October 5th 2011 until January 8th 2012.

This tribute to the Prado's visitors is also an interactive portrayal of modern society. The sprit of the montage is to obtain and then project towards visitors their common denominator with other visitors that have come before them: emotions and sentiments.

"The Prado by Francesco Jodice' combines an innovative approach with a vindication of the protagonism of society at large and a pioneering spirit, three values that ACCIONA shares and embraces in its activity as a company", explained the Head of Corporate Image and Global Marketing of ACCIONA, Pio Cabanillas at the presentation of the show. "Innovation, leading the field and commitment to society at large, along with a long-term vision, are the features that set ACCIONA apart from the rest of the pack when it comes to seeking out and coming up with a response to basic infrastructure, energy and water needs"

"The Prado by Francesco Jodice" is part of the Prado Museum's "Otras Miradas" ("Other ways of seeing") program which is aimed at sharing "other ways of looking" at the museum's collections. ACCIONA, a Benefactor Member of the Prado since 2007, began to collaborate with this program in the same year by sponsoring Miquel Barceló's "Paso Doble" performance, which was presented under the dome painted by Luca Giordano in the Cason del Buen Retiro to mark the finalization of the reformation and rehabilitation work on the historic building which now houses the Prado's Studies Center and Library. This same cross between contemporary art and the Prado's collections was also seen when ACCIONA sponsored Cy Twombly's "Lepanto" series show in 2008 and the exhibition of works by Francis Bacon the following year.

The Company's support for the Prado Museum is also to be seen  other initiatives, such as the first ever show, in 2007, of the Flemish painter Joachim Patinir, a precursor of modern landscape painting; or ACCIONA's collaboration with the " Retrato de España. Obras maestras del Prado" ("A portrait of Spain. Masterpieces of the Prado Museum") exhibition scheduled to run from July to November of 2012 in the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG), in Brisbane, Australia, and which will take to Australia a hundred or so paintings that are key to understanding the history of Spanish history and culture from the 16th century until the early 20th century.