ACTIVITIES PROGRAM FOR ART MADRID’26

The 21st edition of Art Madrid will take place in 2026, marking the event's full establishment within the contemporary art scene in Spain. From 4 to 8 March, the Galería de Cristal of the Palacio de Cibeles will once again play host to thirty-five national and international galleries during Madrid Art Week, reaffirming the event's status as a highlight in the city's cultural calendar.

The 21st edition of the fair features a Parallel Program that explores the concepts of fragments, relationships, and imaginary distances. The fair thus continues its commitment to diversity and visibility for both emerging and established galleries, remaining faithful to its vocation of bringing contemporary art to diverse audiences.

On this occasion, the Parallel Program delves into a reflection on the fair itself, taking Georges Perec's Species of Spaces as a reference to explore the everyday and the infra-ordinary: that which normally remains hidden from view and which, in this context, acquires a narrative value in itself.

This conceptual framework is expanded upon in Édouard Glissant's Poetics of Relation, which advocates for the coexistence of differences and the value of non-totalizing connections. Applied to the art system, these ideas allow us to understand the fair as a network of exchanges that respects the uniqueness of each practice, activating relationships that do not seek to standardise, but rather to resonate with one another from a place of multiplicity.

The "imaginary distances", conceived as subjective journeys and affective cartographies traced by visitors, become the axis that articulates the experience. The fair is thus presented as a territory susceptible to collective reconstruction, where the individual dialogues with the common and where contemplation is transformed into an exercise of questioning and cohabitation with the everyday.

The Parallel Program encourages members of the public to play an active role in this ecosystem by paying attention to the elements of the space that are usually overlooked, but which are revealed here to be triggers of memory, perception and connection. A key part of re-establishing the connections between the artwork, architecture and the public is the sensory experience.

In the run-up to and during Art Week, Art Madrid'26 will be hosting a range of activities that will give the public an insight into the creative processes and practices of the participating artists. The Interview Program, Curated Walkthroughs, the third edition of Open Booth dedicated to emerging creation, and the presentation of Espacio Nebrija, a university project in collaboration with Nebrija University, are all returning. The fair is also consolidating its Performance Cycle, reinforcing its commitment to experimentation and hybrid formats.

Art Madrid'26 reaffirms itself as a dynamic meeting place where diverse experiences, discourses and practices converge. Plurality is established as a structuring principle, forming a network of languages, perspectives, and tensions that reflects the complexity of contemporary art. In this context, the fair acts as a catalyst for cultural relations, an observatory of emerging trends, and an international reference point within the Spanish art scene, maintaining its commitment to accessibility, dialogue, and the vitality of the current creative landscape.