The exhibition, organised by Fundación Bancaja, Generalitat Valenciana, Museo Sorolla, Fundación Museo Sorolla and Light Art Exhibitions, will be presented in October 2023 with original works by Sorolla complemented with sensorial and virtual experience rooms. The headquarters of the Bancaja Foundation in Valencia will host the exhibition Sorolla through light, which will be presented to the public from October 2023 to February 2024 as part of Sorolla Year, which this year commemorates the centenary of the Valencian artist’s death.

The exhibition, organised by the Bancaja Foundation, the Generalitat Valenciana, the Sorolla Museum, the Sorolla Museum Foundation and Light Art Exhibitions, will present for the first time in Valencia an initiative that combines the presence of original works by the artist with the dissemination of his painting through a sensory room experience and virtual reality developed with the most advanced technology and the utmost scientific rigour. The project was presented this morning by the president of the Bancaja Foundation, Rafael Alcón; the director general of Culture and Heritage, Carmen Amoraga; the director of the Sorolla Museum, Enrique Varela; the director of Light Art Exhibitions, Lorenzo Pérez; and one of the curators of the exhibition, Blanca Pons-Sorolla, a leading expert on the artist’s work.

The presentation in Valencia of Sorolla through light will bring an extraordinary selection of original works by Joaquín Sorolla. The exhibition will include previously unpublished works by the painter that will be presented to the public for the first time, as well as some of his greatest masterpieces.

The unique group of canvases that will form part of the exhibition will come from institutional and private collections in Spain and abroad. These include works on loan from the Sorolla Museum and the Sorolla Museum Foundation, as well as from the Hispanic Society of America, with which arrangements are being made to exhibit paintings that have never before been exhibited in Valencia. The exhibition route will also include works from the Bancaja Foundation collection.

Sorolla’s original work will be complemented with state-of-the-art technological resources: a sensory room and a virtual reality room, which will immerse visitors in a spectacle of moving images and sounds that amplify and intensify the sensory effect of his painting and allow them to travel back to the painter’s time.

The President of the Bancaja Foundation stated that “the exhibition that we have announced today is the result of the confluence of many wills and institutions committed to the dissemination of Sorolla’s work, such as the Generalitat, the Sorolla Museum, the Sorolla Museum Foundation, Light Art Exhibitions and the Bancaja Foundation itself”. Rafael Alcón emphasised “the innovative coexistence in this exhibition of Sorolla’s masterful original work with the sensory room and virtual reality, which will be a real milestone in Valencia for the enjoyment and better understanding of the artist’s pictorial legacy”.

The Director General for Culture and Heritage, Carmen Amoraga, stressed that “the city, the community and the whole country are committed to the celebration of Sorolla Year and the one we are presenting today is one of the most important ways in which the public can experience 20th century art through 21st century eyes with an initiative that is included in the Generalitat’s Sorolla Year programme”. She added that “public-private collaboration makes it possible for works from all corners of the world to arrive in València in just a few months, some of which have never before been exhibited in the city. For this very reason, I would like to thank the Bancaja Foundation, the Sorolla Museum and the Sorolla Museum Foundation, as well as Light Art Exhibitions and, of course, Blanca Pons-Sorolla for their work and efforts in making this project a reality”.

The exhibition curator Blanca Pons-Sorolla stressed that ”this exhibition is a unique opportunity to approach Sorolla because of the special and careful coexistence between the technology and the original work, which generates a splendid experience thanks also to the selection of works from many public and private institutions, and which will allow the presence in this exhibition of works that have never been seen before in Valencia”.

For his part, the director of the Sorolla Museum, Enrique Varela, stated that ”if there is one word that qualifies this exhibition it is: exciting. Emotion through the senses, through the contemplation of the works and the confluence of various creative formats in the same space, which manage to envelop the visitor in a new and unique experience”. He added that ”this project allows us to build the loyalty of the public who have known and enjoyed Sorolla’s work for years, while at the same time bringing it closer to the new generations, who are active in the digital environment on a daily basis”.

In addition, the director of Light Art Exhibitions, Lorenzo Pérez, stated that “for LAE from the outset, Valencia has been, along with Madrid, the two key cities in this project. As a Valencian by adoption, it is a great satisfaction to be here today presenting Sorolla through Light together with Fundación Bancaja and Generallitat Valenciana. If it is a success in Madrid, it will also be a success in Valencia”.

This innovative exhibition of Sorolla’s work stands out as one of the main events to be held as part of the official programme of Sorolla Year, declared an Event of Exceptional Public Interest (AEIP).

Report by ‘24/7 Valencia’ team

Article copyright ‘24/7 Valencia’

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