Speech of Alvaro Noboa Pontón during Closing of the II Biennale of Painting
24-Junio-2010

Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Well, first I would like to give great thanks to the people who are here, together with me: my wife, Anabella, my son, Santiago. Dr. Gonzalo Noboa Elizalde, who, besides being a relative both of my father – may he rest in peace – and of my own, has been my lawyer since I was 18 years old. He was also my father’s lawyer and one of the pillars of this great empire that my father established and that later I continued, establishing a series of businesses during my lifetime.
I would also like to thank Joseph Roberts, who has come both on this occasion and on the one before from Seattle, Washington, to take part in this biennale. He has also been a very important support in the development of this biennale and in the development of this museum.

To Pablo Martínez, who is here with me, who gave rise to the development: it was he who took the first steps to be able to establish the museum, which today is an important museum and the seat of a biennale which bears my name internationally.

I would also like to ask Mariela, who is here, to join me. I was waiting for her to arrive. Mariela, please, come up. Mariela Garcia Caputti, who has been my friend since I was 18 years old, I am godparent to one of her daughters, and she is one of the women who has contributed the most in both art and in archeology in Ecuador.

I would like to thank Checo Pérez, Erick Cristmas, and Carlos Béjar, who are present here, and now I will begin with the words that I want to say to all those present here and in Ecuador:

Four years ago, when we created the Luis A. Noboa Naranjo Museum, we took as our goal the creation of an International Biennale of Painting in the city of Guayaquil.

This year, 2010, we surprised the cultural and social world of our city with the Second International Álvaro Noboa Biennale of Painting.

Twenty-five countries participated, 14 Ecuadorian provinces, 288 visual artists with 387 works.

We were able to bring together an international jury of renowned curators, artists and historians, and our biennale was advertised in all of the country’s newspapers, on the major television channels, on various radio stations, and there were articles dedicated to the biennale in North America, in Italy, in Uruguay and in Panama.

Now, the closing moment of the biennale has come and we wanted to have all of you present here, to renew our firm dedication to continue with our support of the arts and culture of our country, via this museum which bears my father, Luis A. Noboa Naranjo’s name; via the biennale that now bears my name, Álvaro Noboa; and via the many activities that we are going to carry out in order to give incentive to all artists and in all areas.

I don’t want to take my leave of you before saying that I support art and culture in a democratic world, a free world, a world without ties, and that world, all of us together here have created, and we are not going to allow that to change.

We want to live in absolute freedom; we want there to be freedom of the press, we want there to be culture in Ecuador; we want poverty to end. Every day, we want this country to become a new country, a developed country for which all Ecuadorians would have to work together, both bosses and workers united together hand-in-hand, whether it be through investment, through work, be it cultural, be it professional, or of whatever kind, so that we can finally launch Ecuador onto another level, a level such as where Chile is today, where the United States is today, where Sweden is today, where Italy is today; countries that have come here to this museum to participate. And if they can reach as high as that, so can we, in our own way, reach the same height.

Thank you very much, Ecuadorians. At this moment, I want to say to my father, may he rest in peace, that I remember him every day, that I miss him, with much admiration and with much love…

Thank you very much.