There is life outside of Ifema. In Art Week, various complementary and parallel artistic proposals flourish throughout Madrid to those that ARCOmadrid and the rest of the capital’s fairs host since Wednesday. Some are their own initiatives, others are part of the GUEST program of the fair, but all of them broaden the cultural horizon beyond halls 7 and 9. The Madrid agenda is endless, in the four cardinal points. ABCdeARCO takes a tour of the most outstanding alternative activities.
In the heart of Madrid, one step away from the Gran Vía, Father Ángel faces hunger, thirst and cold. The Church of San Anton it opens its doors day and night as a center for the homeless, as a “field hospital” for the most disadvantaged. In this space, Oscar Murillo Until tomorrow, Sunday, he presents ‘social waterfall’, a project that explores the idea of community in those places considered, for him, of social relevance. “There is no doubt that this church is an important axis of community support,” says the Colombian creator.
The artist exhibits three paintings and multiple tablecloths created specifically for the temple: “Reflecting on how to intervene in the space, I thought of the tablecloths as a reference for that community support.” The proposal acquires, in addition to a social dimension, a strong critical sense, linked to the name of the series itself ‘Surge (social cataracts)’ and the context of the intervention. For Murillo, «society has cataracts. In contemporary terms, it makes sense in a completely ignorant, blinded society.”
Social demands gain prominence in Madrid. The LGTBI collective claims its space in art, through which to reconstruct its history and make its social struggles visible. He Arkhé Queer Archive, made up of 50,000 pieces including photographs, newspapers, magazines or engravings, introduces Latin America into the collective’s historical narrative. The creators of the “most complete archive in the Global South” –in his words– are the collectors Halim Badawi y Felipe Hinestrosawho inaugurated last Monday the Spanish headquarters of the entity, in Doctor Fourquet street.
The collectors Felipe Hinestrosa and Halim Badawi at Archivo Arkhé Madrid
The exhibition ‘A (Not So) Pink Story: A Brief Queer Cultural History’ collects a selection of more than 300 pieces from the Arkhé Archive; the oldest, an engraving by Theodor de Bry from 1598, known as ‘The Whore Hunt’, the starting point of the exhibition. The exhibition delves into the origins of transformism and preserves, among other materials, a dress from the Colombian drag Madorilyn Crawford. It has copies of the first gay novels from Colombia, Portugal and Spain, as well as issues of the magazines ‘Fuori’, a pioneer in Italy, ‘Madrid Gai’ or ‘Der Eigene’, the first publication for homosexuals in history.
Another exhibition space in the capital –and one that is not strictly commercial either– is Tasman Projectsa patronage program of Fernando Panizo y Dorothy Neary. It is an initiative that aims to integrate collectors, galleries or curators into a common project. On dates like those of ARCOmadrid, he gains weight in the Madrid art scene, “in order to facilitate the dissemination and knowledge of the chosen artist.” On this occasion, its space, an old bank branch, has promoted the ‘NINES’ project, by the creator Elsa Parisiowhich is presented this Saturday.
The ‘Novel Institute Noticing External Signals’ is a research project that the artist defines as “intra-extraterrestrial”, and which operates in the garden of her parents’ house. Also conceived as an approach to maritime astrophotography. She understands it as working together with her family: “Actually, they are my team.” She affirms that they have been working on this project for generations, “with the conviction of being able to reach this and other worlds at different scales.”
ARCO, a showcase
Elsa Paricio has been the artistic director of OTR. art space, where these days ‘The place watching’, by Valeria Maculan, is exhibited. The show is built around dramaturgy and Greek theater and, in its staging, the Argentine creator explores the path of redesigning the human body. Maculan explains that “what were paintings on the wall, became figures.” From there, she began to see bodies and characters, and by activating them, she thought about the possibility of telling a story. That is why the construction of the exhibition –specific for Art Week– is conceived as a drama in three acts, as explained by its curator, Claudia Rodriguez-Ponga. In the space, which is only open at specific times of the year, and ARCO is one of them, the artist plays with her different works – the Caryatids, the Gorgons or the Sceptres – to configure a story.
The project moves between public and digital art ‘RE-VS. (Returned)’, from the artistic collective Boa Mistura (“good mix” in Portuguese), made up of Javier Serrano, Juan Jaume, Pablo Ferreiro and Pablo Purón. The concept may seem simple, but its execution is complex: the starting point is a large 10×10 meter mural painted on the façade of a building adjacent to his studio, in the Puente de Vallecas neighborhood. Once painted, the space was divided into 35 quadrants and digitized in the form of NFTs, which are for sale at the gallery stand. Ponce+Robles at Ifema and through the digital art platform Obilum. Virtual and real world are connected. This is because every time you sell one of the NFTs, the collective will erase the quadrant from the mural. There are two days left to know the final result.
And from a novelty to a classic. Because… What’s more traditional than a carajillo for breakfast? The initiative ‘Carajillo Visit’ reached its sixth edition on Friday as part of the GUEST program at ARCOmadrid, “trying to be more generous each year”, he comments Carlos Aries. The meeting, in addition to having the recent projects of Mala Fama studios and Nave Porto, revolved around the Third Paradise concept, developed by Michelangelo Pistoletto, the master of Arte Povera. “It is a concept that speaks of the community taking a position on its main problems”, a philosophy that was developed for the first time in Madrid, according to Luis Sicre: “And we have done it in Carabanchel”. The call ‘Rebirth Forum Carabanchel’ yesterday had its plenary session: Pistoletto’s studio rolled a 1.60 meter sphere created from newsprint through the streets of the neighborhood, emulating one of his historical performances.
He Studio Carlos Garaicoa, collaborator of the Rebirth event, inaugurated its new space yesterday Friday with a collective exhibition by the artists Keith Haring, Dominik Lang and José Manuel Mesías. Also in carabanchelanother artistic center now occupies the premises of an old textile factory, of more than 400 square meters: Seagull Spacewhich thus joins the large group of entities dedicated to the production and exhibition of art.
The art festival in Madrid lasts at least one more week. New Gallery proposes a “turn of the screw” to the concept of ‘fair’ with GN Art Fair, a quote that is intended to be more “unhurried and thoughtful” than conventional events. In this first edition, three different projects from Latin America, Europe and Spain coexist: Art Concept Alternative, Ulf Larsson and ArtQuake Gallery.
But the party –in the strict sense– arrives tonight at the Teatro Magno with the challenge of uniting electronic music and contemporary art. that will be in Art&Techno ‘The Club’, the event that returns to Madrid combining techno sessions and performances with the works of different artistic groups. In Malasaña, it opens its doors reverse study; and in San Blas, domestic landscape tries to ‘take down’ the indomitable: one hundred artists paying homage to Paulina Bonaparte. The money raised will go to the Canillejas Neighborhood Association.
The city that never sleeps challenges visitors with a hectic art-filled calendar.