At 11.00 a.m. on Tuesday 23 October the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) hosted the opening of the exhibition entitled "The Eye of Nature: Jordi Sabater Pi". The exhibition presents a series of drawings made by the emeritus professor of the University of Barcelona Jordi Sabater Pi, while in Africa during the 1950s and 1960s, and all of the works form part of the Sabater Pi Collection, which is also housed at the PCB. The opening ceremony was attended by the Park's general manager, Fernando Albericio, as well as by Jordi Sabater Pi himself.

The exhibition will run until 31 January 2008 and includes part of the new material which Sabater Pi recently bequeathed to the University of Barcelona (UB); the collection now boasts over 2,000 items including drawings, watercolours and original notes, as well as other documents of enormous scientific interest such as books, journals, a collection of professional correspondence and ethnological objects from Africa.

The new material recently bequeathed to the UB comprises 300 drawings, a field notebook used during his time spent studying mountain gorillas in Rwanda with Diane Fossey in 1972, and another notebook from the scientific expedition to the Congo to study Bonobo chimpanzees, work which was funded by the UB. In addition to these documents the new donations include a set of portraits of indigenous people produced in Guinea, drawings of the albino gorilla Snowflake and other primates and animals, and landscapes of Catalonia and the Huesca region of the Pyrenees.

The exhibition has received support from the Victor Balaguer Museum and Library, which last spring put on show a selection of the Sabater Pi Collection in the town of Vilanova i la Geltrú. The drawings on display in the PCB are presented in four categories: ethnography, fauna, flora and landscapes.

In parallel to the exhibition, Jordi Sabater Pi will offer guided tours of the Collection (by reservation only) on 16 and 30 November and 14 December 2007, and on 11 and 25 January 2008. To mark the celebration of Science Week in Catalonia, on 9 November the renowned ethologist will also give a talk entitled “Observing, drawing, knowing, loving and protecting”. During the talk he will discuss his most important discoveries, describe how he conducted his research while in Africa, and recount some of the anecdotes and experiences he shared with the indigenous people of Guinea and with Snowflake. The talk will be given at 10.30 a.m. in the Antoni Caparrós Auditorium of the Barcelona Science Park (c/ Baldiri Reixac 4-6).