SANTANDER.- Benjamin Weil, born in Paris, has a prestigious international track record in the world of contemporary art. During his career, he has implemented projects in New York, at the ICA in London, and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He has worked closely with some of the leading international contemporary artists, such as Pipilotti Rist, Lawrence Weiner, Christian Marclay, Pierre Huyghe, Philippe Parreno, Gary Hill and Matthew Barney.

Fundación Botín has today announced that Benjamin Weil, a distinguished professional in the world of international contemporary art, will be Artistic Director of the future Botín Centre in Santander, after an international appointment process run by UK consultants "Liz Amos Associates", specialising in the art world.

Benjamin Weil, whose professional career has developed at such prestigious institutions as the ICA in London or the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, will start work in his new position from January, although he is already in contact with Fundación Botín and working to develop the Botín Centre's art programme.

Born in Paris, where he spent his childhood, Benjamin Weil began his career in the mid-1980s, working in New York as assistant curator for a major private collection covering various centuries, and which included Cycladic and pre-Columbian sculpture, German expressionist painting and impressionist works, as well as modern and contemporary art. After graduating from the Whitney Independent Study Program, he worked as an independent curator and art critic, contributing to magazines like Flash Art, Beaux Arts and Atlantica. In 1994, he co-founded Ada Web, the first digital production studio that commissioned contemporary artists Jenny Holzer, Lawrence Weiner and Doug Aitken to produce works online, and he continued this activity at London's ICA. In 2000, he returned to the US to take up a position as Media Art Curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where he worked with artists like Pipilotti Rist, Christian Marclay, Pierre Huyghe, Philippe Parreno, Gary Hill and Matthew Barney. Since 2009, he as been Director of Activities at LABoral, where he has co-curated an exhibition of works from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art Collection, as well as a selection of cinematographic/photographic works from the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

As Artistic Director, Benjamin Weil will give shape to the artistic ideas proposed by the Art Advisory Committee for the Botín Centre, implementing those projects that are approved by the Committee. The committee is chaired by Vicente Todolí and comprises Paloma Botín, Manuela Mena, Udo Kittelmann and María José Salazar, and, from now on, Benjamin Weil himself. His duties will include the submitting artistic projects for the Committee's approval and curating Fundación Botín's contemporary art collection.

In this connection he will work closely with Begoña Guerrica-Echevarría, Director of Operations, who will continue to be in charge of mounting exhibitions, organising workshops and running arts scholarships for Fundación Botín.

Through the arts, the Botín Centre in Santander will help develop creativity in order to unlock economic and social wealth. The project, which is the work of architects Renzo Piano Building Workshop, in cooperation with Luis Vidal y Arquitectos, is aimed at creating a place for art, culture and educational activities, and generating a new meeting point in Santander that will bring the centre of the town closer to its bay area.

For this purpose, as important as the building itself are the public areas surrounding it and the new Jardines de Pereda gardens, which, thanks to a tunnel, will double in size. It will be inaugurated in the summer of 2014.

Works began on 19 June 2012 with the symbolic removal of the ferry car park fence which for decades had cut off the city centre from the sea.

Emilio Botín, President of Fundación Botín, explained that it was the institution's most social, global and local project. “It is our most social project, because it is the one best equipped to produce cultural and economic wealth”. It is also “our most global project because its educational and artistic activities will have an impact on the whole of Spain and on the rest of the world””. But at the same time, "it is our most local project because its prime objective is to revitalize Santander via the arts”.

The main structural item of the Botín Centre was erected on 12 July 2013. These were levels 1 and 2 of the main latticework and the façade of the Western side of the Botín Centre, this being the first and largest structural volume constructed over pillars in a single manoeuvre.

All the work is being carried out at a good pace and to schedule.

The building comprises two volumes, linked by a structure containing spaces and walkways that will function as primary distributor. The Western volume will be used for art, and includes an exhibition hall measuring 2,500 m2. The Eastern volume (the smaller of the two) will be used for education.

Fundación Botín has earmarked 77 million euros for the construction of the new building itself, the Jardines de Pereda (a garden which is set to double in size) and the tunnel to divert traffic underground. It is the largest private investment in cultural infrastructure in Spain. The building work is being carried out by OHL-Ascan, and the management and works execution by Bovis Lend Lease.

The works began in June 2012 and the Centre is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2014.