Alex Trelinski
FILM director Tim Burton is to be awarded the first-ever ‘Ambassador of Madrid’ title.
Madrid City Council approved the new award in April which can be handed out up to three times a year at a special ceremony.
It will be given to ‘honour people who have stood out for their activities or services abroad for the benefit of the city of Madrid’.
Burton is famous for a raft of movies with a distinct visual style including Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd, and The Nightmare before Christmas.
Madrid City Council says that Burton is a ‘world-renowned artist of stature’ and as Ambassador, he would ‘strengthen the image of Madrid’.
Procedures to give Burton the award will begin on Thursday.
The new award would coincide with a special interactive exhibition celebrating Burton’s work which will be staged at the Espacio Ibercaja Delicias in the autumn.
Exhibitions featuring Burton’s sculptures, designs, drawings, and paintings have toured round international venues for some years.
Details about what exactly will appear in Madrid have yet to be revealed, but it has been described as an ‘immersive’ retrospective and a ‘European premiere’.
Madrid’s Culture Councillor, Andrea Levy, said: “After a life of overflowing creativity, Burton will arrive to exhibit his visual work in Madrid: an equally creative city, world capital of art, which is his first passion.”
