Inditex’s Roots Illuminate the Arts: Es Devlin and David Bailey Spotlighted

In 2025, Spanish city of A Coruña consolidates its status as a cultural center thanks to the impulse of Inditex and the Foundation Marta Ortega Pérez, within the framework of Zara’s 50th anniversary year. The Spanish fashion retail giant thus reinforces its commitment to its home territory through two major artistic and cultural projects of great international scope.

 

On the one hand, on July 3, Zara will inaugurate a large kinetic installation signed by British artist Es Devlin, in the Atlantic dome of the Monte de San Pedro observatory, a space rehabilitated and reopened for the occasion. The piece, entitled 50 Songs of the Sea, will envelop visitors in an immersive journey through rotating concentric rings, lights and sound evocative of the power of the Atlantic Ocean. The proposal also includes a narration by Spanish actress Elena Anaya and an exterior frieze with poetic verses about the sea, with verses by Rosalía de Castro or Emily Dickinson, visible from the Led band that surrounds the dome of 28 meters in diameter.

 

Born in London in 1971, Es Devlin is one of the most influential contemporary creators in the field of art installations and large-scale stage shows. Renowned for her ability to fuse light, music and space, she has worked for leading institutions such as the Tate Modern and the National Theatre in London, as well as designing stage productions for artists such as Beyoncé, U2 and Kanye West. Her work explores the relationship between people and the places they inhabit, inviting the public to interact and participate in the artistic experience. In 2023, she was awarded the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to the performing and visual arts.

 

According to the artist herself, the Atlantic dome constitutes “an exceptional place, with its waves and its fierce and spectacular weather,“ a location that looks out over Europe, Africa and America from the top of the Coruña mountain. The installation, which can be visited free of charge by booking on Zara’s website until October 12, is completed with a cultural program of concerts and workshops, as well as a cafeteria space, underlining Inditex’s intention to open this enclave to the local and visiting public.

 

 

 

 

Devlin’s installation is joined by the Marta Ortega Pérez Foundation’s major summer exhibition, David Bailey’s Changing Fashion, which opened its doors on June 28 at the Muelle de Batería.It will be the first retrospective in Spain of the British photographer, considered one of the fundamental names in the definition of the aesthetics of the sixties and seventies.

 

The exhibition brings together more than 140 images, many of them unpublished, and will be supported by a short film and a free publication inspired by Ritz, the magazine Bailey himself founded in 1976. The exhibition especially highlights his 1965 box of pin-ups, a portfolio of portraits that included both pop culture icons and controversial figures, and which illustrated the diversity and rebelliousness of the London scene of the time.

 

With this proposal, the MOP Foundation, chaired by Marta Ortega, moves its exhibitions to a biannual format. Previously, its major exhibitions were held only once a year, having hosted shows by the celebrated Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel or Helmut Newton.

 

Inditex’s commitment to bringing top-level cultural projects to the public in its home city is in line with the transforming role that the company has played over the last 50 years. Founded in 1975, Zara and the Inditex group as a whole have placed A Coruña on the world map of the textile industry, and now also reinforce its dimension as a cultural reference.

 

Alongside the Bailey exhibition and the Es Devlin installation, the MOP Foundation will host the Future Stories exhibition, with projects by four young Galician photographers trained in Milan thanks to the collaboration with the FOP.n thanks to the collaboration with the Fondazione Sozzani, as well as the second edition of The MOP Talks, a program of talks and meetings with figures of contemporary culture.

 

Half a century after the founding of Zara, Inditex demonstrates with these initiatives that its impact model goes beyond fashion: it is also a way of projecting creativity, art and opportunities for A Coruña and Galicia.