#arts

A sculpture of an open tap spewing out rubbish - composed entirely of plastic - instead of water - was the symbol of the 2nd United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC), held this year in Lisbon.

The car, with its links to design, art, cities, technology and the future, is the protagonist of the exhibition Motion. Autos, Art, Architecture, inaugurated in April at the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao. Its curator, the architect Norman Foster, one of the most renowned on the international scene, is a self-confessed lover of automobiles: he collects them, admires them, drives them and now exhibits them. As a result of this passion, the cars are presented in the exhibition as aesthetic works on wheels accompanied by related works of art, which in turn reflect on the past and the future.

A history professor specialising in art, Javier González de Durana has curated the exhibition Jorge Oteiza and Eduardo Chillida. Dialogue of the 50s and 60s, which arrives at the San Telmo Museum in San Telmo, San Sebastian, on 8 April after its visit to Valencia. The exhibition, which includes works on loan from Iberdrola, presents for the first time the creations of two of the most internationally renowned Spanish sculptors of the 20th century. The most relevant thing for Durana is that the exhibition is not about the personal confrontation between the two artists, but about the years of friendship, encounter and mutual learning. An opportunity for healing art.

Alice Neel (1900-1984) had the ability to look, to look around her with empathy and immortalise it on canvas. Steeped in humanity, her works portray the most disadvantaged sectors of society: women, immigrants and the jobless. Her unique point of view is now on display at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and Lucia Agirre, curator of the exhibition Alice Neel: People come first, is an encounter with a great artist largely unknown to the general public.

Chillida Leku is hosting the exhibition Tàpies in Zabalaga, sponsored by the Iberdrola Foundation, until 10th January. An exhibition in which the work of the Catalan artist engages in a dialogue with that of Chillida, with whom, in addition to being good friends, he was united by the desire to transcend matter as a path towards spirituality and a humanist approach with which he underlined the transforming capacity of art. Mireia Massagué, director of Chillida Leku, invites us to enjoy the bond between two unique and inimitable artists at the Zabalaga farmhouse.

The ninth edition of the International Environmental Film Festival was held from 30 August to 5 September in Buenos Aires (Argentina). The Green Film Fest originally appeared to raise awareness over environmental issues through the seventh art. The event also has its own space in San Francisco (USA): it will be returning for the eighth consecutive year from 6 to 13 September.