The visitor will find models of ships, books, pictures, photographs, documents and information panels

The Alvargonzález Foundation, based in Gijón, is again betting on the ships for its summer exhibition. If last summer the exhibition room hosted the models of the Astorian Association of Naval Modelism, this year's show revolves around the birth, life and death of the ships with the suggestive title The life of ships through a business history.

For this purpose, the Alvarzonález Foundation uses its own Historical Archive, using materials from its business and family documentary background, composed of plans, writings, letters and photographs, to which models and related objects such as books and information panels are added for this sample.

The exposure has been structured in the following areas:

1- Project and gestation of the ship. Before its construction it is necessary to define the needs of the company, referring to the type of load, routes to be travelled and ports to visit. From the shipyard there will be bulk, gas, cemeteries, passage, etc. Dimensions and other technical characteristics should also be established, as well as the choice of the construction company, equipment, budget and delivery time. "The completion of this first phase will come with the boat's launch. It will be the privilege of the ship's godmother to give the symbolic" botellazo, "after which the ship will reach the sea by sliding (front or side) or floating (if it is in a dry dam," the sample commissioner says.

2- Active life. Once the launch and sea tests have been done, the ship begins the activity for which it was conceived. The selection of the staff shall lead an autonomous life, which shall be coordinated between the on-board and the ground staff. The good tuning between the two will make the yields expected and, consequently, bring value to the company.

3- Other ships of the shipping company Alvarzonález. The long and brilliant shipping tradition of the Gijonese family Alvarzonález starts in the 19th century, but if we focus in the last hundred years we find that they have been shipowners of more than 30 ships, to which a difficult number of ships should be added in all kinds of appropriation and management.

4- End of life cycle. The ships also get that moment that closes their life cycle. The causes may be natural, such as the loss of efficiency, or the modification of the needs of the company, which lead to its sale or scrapping; and the traumatic, such as the shipwrecks or serious accidents, which make it useless or even disappear. "In this section, where there is graphic material of boat accidents, there are different photographs of the 'Castle of Salas', the ship that sailed off our coast in 1986," says García Rodríguez.

The opening of the exhibition is Friday, July 16, at 7 p.m. On the part of the Foundation Alvargonzález will intervene Ramón Alvargonzález, director and Alfonso García Rodríguez, commissar the exhibition, which will be open until 26 August, in the SALA OF EXPOSITIONS OF THE FUNCATION, located in Óscar Olavarría, 11 Bajo Cimadevilla, Gijón.

Communication Fundación Alvarzonález
610 787 522
mail @ fundacion-alvarzonalez.com
www.fundacion-alvarzonalez.com