Special Supplement: Spanish royal couple inaugurate art exhibition of "la Caixa"

King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofa of Spain, along with Isidro Fain, president of Spanish banking giant "la Caixa" and its Foundation, and the general director of its Welfare Projects, Jos F. de Conrado, inaugurated an exhibition of works from the "la Caixa" Foundation Collection of Contemporary Art yesterday, at the Beijing Imperial City Art Museum in China.

The exhibition, which is being held to mark the arrival of "la Caixa" in China, will continue till August 23, 2007.

The collection manages to bring together a magnificent selection of the works of the most outstanding international artists in the past three decades.

The display features 15 major installations, paintings, videos and photographs by the renowned artists, who tackle art as part of the human experience of reality.

The artists featured in the show are Antoni Tpies, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Miquel Barcel, Carlos Amorales, Andreas Gursky, Joan Hernndez Pijuan, Jonathan Lasker, Miquel Navarro, Soledad Sevilla, Juan Usl, Oscar Munoz, Javier Balden, Jiri Georg Dokoupil and Javier Penafiel.

The Caja de Ahorros y Pensiones de Barcelona, better known as "la Caixa", was founded more than one hundred years ago with the aim of attending to people's needs in two ways. One was to offer a response to citizens' financial requirements, the other being to contribute to resolving social difficulties by engineering an improvement in community life.

A century later, this commitment still remains fully in force and wherever it carries out financial activities, "la Caixa" also promotes - through its Arts and Welfare Projects - initiatives designed to let all citizens savor diverse examples of artistic endeavor, to foster the development of the country and to prevent the exclusion of the more disadvantaged sectors of the population.

"la Caixa" is currently the third-largest financial entity in Spain and the first savings bank of Europe. It has 12 million customers and the largest number of branches in Spain, a network of over 5,200 offices.

On the occasion of the arrival of "la Caixa" in China and the broadening of its financial activities here, "la Caixa" is launching the internationalization of its Welfare Projects, one of its most important signs of identity.

"la Caixa" Welfare Projects is the leading private foundation in Spain, the third in Europe and the sixth in the world in terms of budget size.

This year, "la Caixa" will assign 400 million euros ($537.7 million) to its Welfare Projects to meet the needs of society.

This figure represents 25 percent of the profits generated by its financial activities. Families in situations of hardship, young people, immigrants and those encountering difficulties in entering the job market are just a few of the groups to benefit from the initiatives undertaken by "la Caixa" Welfare Projects.

Protection of the environment, support for education and the dissemination of culture and knowledge as instruments of individual growth are the other concerns of its Welfare Projects.

The "la Caixa" Foundation enjoys international recognition and prestige in the field of art.

The exhibition titled "'la Caixa' Foundation Contemporary Art Collection - Visions and Expressions" at the Beijing Imperial City Art Museum is the first such event organized by "la Caixa" Welfare Projects outside Spain and is part of their bid to internationalize "la Caixa" and, with it, the Welfare and Arts Projects.

(China Daily 06/29/2007 page19)