Displayed families, conflicting tribes, overdressed city: Santander, from the Centro Botín

Abstract

Seen together with other neighboring projects more recently announced by Banco Santander, the Centro Botín does not look stranger to the Botín family business strategy. The City makes the most of it to advance in the achievement of its own cultural brand. The citizen, beyond the undeniable benefits of its contents, is offered the possibility of discovering some hidden neighborhoods from its viewpoints, at least those of them who are not only looking for the usual postcard. On that Southern slope that is not visible at ground level, new real estate interests appear opposite our eyes, just as several social agents whose voice had not been heard before do. On the walls of its streets can be found ephemeral documents, some of them by the art center, which help explain the appeal of that other landscape.