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ARQUITECTURAS IMAGINADAS. PARALLEL PROGRAM TERRITORY CITY. ART MADRID'25

Art Madrid celebrates its twentieth anniversary in 2025 as a well-established event within contemporary art in Spain. From March 5 to 9, the Galeria de cristal of the Palacio de Cibeles will once again bring together national and international galleries during Madrid Art Week.

In its 20th edition, the fair presents a Gallery Program featuring thirty-four national and international exhibitors, around two hundred artists, and an extensive Parallel Program focused on the conceptual axis: Territory City.

Public space, the city, and the territory will be the central themes explored by industry specialists, analyzing the impact of artistic practices on the urban environment. Sensory experience will play a key role in investigating the connections between art, territory, and the city as a social agora. The Parallel Program activities will engage with artistic practices emerging from shifting identities and spatial imaginaries that revitalize Madrid’s cultural geography—conceived as a permeable organism and a topography of shared meanings.

The Parallel Program offers tours through artistically intervened spaces, inviting reflection on the ever-changing identities of the urban fabric. Performances and exhibitions will revitalize spatial imaginaries and raise essential questions: What does it mean to inhabit a space? How do we reimagine common spaces?

This year, part of the Parallel Program is curated in collaboration with CRU. Among the actions spread across the territorial landscape of Madrid, we present to you: ARQUITECTURAS IMAGINADAS.

Ana Matey, Dómix Garrido, Araceli López y Andrés Montes have been invited to intervene in various stations of two of the busiest subway lines in Madrid, with the aim of transforming these subway spaces through different aesthetic languages. The main challenge will be to develop projects that connect in a meaningful way with travelers, turning these stations into inspiring places full of beauty.

This program highlights how art has the power to sensitize and change our perception of our surroundings. The proposal not only seeks to enrich the experience of those who use public transport, but also to promote a reflection on the importance of public space. In particular, the Madrid Metro is presented as a key space for urban mobility and social interaction, and this project aims to foster a greater appreciation for it without falling into a paternalistic approach, but through an educational proposal that invites collective reflection.

Ana Matey. Arquitecturas Imaginadas. Art Madrid'25.

ANA MATEY

¿Puede el arte dar respuestas?

Location: LINE 1 (route between CUATRO CAMINOS and PACIFICO) and LINE 2 (route between CUATRO CAMINOS TO VENTAS). Metro Madrid.

Time: 10:00-12:00h

¿Puede el arte dar respuestas? is a durational and intermittent action initiated in 2021. Each year, Ana Matey presents a new performance whose objective is to collect questions, becoming an archive and memory of an era. Throughout this process, each intervention becomes a call for participation, adding up to four actions, with durations ranging from 51 days to 4 hours.

The new proposal consists of reading the 929 questions collected so far in the carriages of lines 1 and 2 of the Madrid Metro, inviting passengers to be part of the action by formulating their own questions. In addition, during that day and throughout the art week, the public will have the opportunity to participate by sending their questions to the e-mail address accionmetanoia@gmail.com. Through this action, we seek to generate a space for collective reflection, where art becomes a means to question and, perhaps, find answers to the big questions of our society.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Ana Matey Marañón is an artist from Madrid whose work moves between the visual arts and performance. She studied audiovisual communication, image, photography and Butoh dance. Her professional career began in 2001, and since 2006 she has been deeply involved in live action art, as well as in the field of dynamisation, research and training. Co-founder of the collective El Carromato (2006-2010), a multidisciplinary space in Madrid where ARTóN (2009-2014), a monthly meeting dedicated to the practice, promotion, research and documentation of action art, is born. In 2012 she co-founded EXCHANGE Live Art, a collective research and creation project, and MATSUcreación, a home workshop and meeting place between art and nature through laboratories and different activities (currently on hiatus). Her work is nourished by walking, collecting and moving. She is interested in processes and experimentation through repetitive and prolonged actions in which she exercises observation, transformation and patience to reflect on how time and space affect us in the way we relate to each other. She has participated in action art festivals around the world and her work has been exhibited in museums, galleries, theatres and alternative spaces both nationally and internationally and has been recognised with various awards and grants.

Dómix Garrido. Arquitecturas Imaginadas. Art Madrid'25.

DÓMIX GARRIDO

Reflexión en un vagón de metror

Location: LÍNEA 1 (route between CUATRO CAMINOS and PACÍFICO) and LÍNEA 2 (route between CUATRO CAMINOS A VENTAS)

Time: 10:00-12:00h

Reflection in a Subway Car is a proposal that delves into the realm of public introspection. It is a performative reflection spoken aloud about contemporary art, with a particular focus on events related to its exhibition, dissemination, and commercialization. In this work, the artist carries out a direct reflection on the process they experience as a creator, from the moment they receive the invitation to participate in an event to the precise instant when they present the performance.

The main objective of this proposal is to share the artist’s reflections with the people sharing the subway ride. Through this action, the internal process an artist goes through when preparing an intervention is brought to light. By not inviting the audience beforehand, the notion of a predisposed audience fades away, and the people present at that moment become ordinary citizens, involuntary spectators of an artistic event. The reactions of the public can be varied and are an integral part of the proposal, which seeks to establish communication—whether direct or indirect—with people in the surrounding environment. This displacement, which the artist has infiltrated with their intervention, has no fixed destination and leads nowhere in particular. The people traveling, absorbed in their thoughts and daily activities, are transformed into involuntary observers of a work of art.

The artist will likely enter the subway car with a recorder or mobile phone in hand. They begin a reflection or conversation aloud, possibly carrying a notebook or some object to read the text. During the performance, the artist interacts with those who show interest or ask questions. Once the intervention ends, they exit the car, carrying in their mind a series of words related to the proposal: “Art Madrid. Performance. Imagined Architectures. City Territory. Action Art. Reflections...”

This process aims not only to generate an artistic reflection in the public but also to raise a question about art itself, its relationship with public space, and the interaction between the creator and the spectator.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Dómix Garrido Abenza (Archena, Murcia, 1963) is a performer, scenic researcher, educator, and cultural manager, holding a degree in Performing Arts and specializing in Museology and Contemporary Art. Since 2004, his work as a performance artist has taken him across Spain, participating in festivals, museums, and art centers. Internationally, his work has been presented in cities in France, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Morocco, Norway, Colombia, and the United States, among others.

In 2020, Dómix published the book "Creative Freedom in My Actions: On the Art of Performance." He is a member of 1668, a collective that has been developing artistic projects advocating for human rights since 2014, with a particular focus on migration and borders.

His work has been recognized in various biennials, including the Bronx Latin American Art Biennial (New York) and the International PERFOARTNET Art Biennials in Bogotá. He has received scholarships from the EEA Grants from the Norwegian Embassy and the Research for Art and Social Improvement Projects Grant from the CEPAIM Foundation, in addition to being selected for several international calls. He was also chosen by the Program for the Promotion of Contemporary Spanish Art and recently by the Community of Madrid for the RED ITINER exhibition “1,2... acción!” of Exchange Live Art.

Since 2009, he has directed the International Performance Festival ABIERTO DE ACCIÓN in various Spanish cities, as well as the Solo_Performance cycle at the Centro Párraga in Murcia, the Miradas de Mujeres Festival at the MURAM in Cartagena, and has coordinated public space interventions with institutions like ARTJAEN, KREÆ, and other public and private entities. Furthermore, he has taught workshops on performance and poetic action. In 2018, his project was selected as one of the “Best Valued by the Ministry of Education and Culture.”

Araceli López. Arquitecturas Imaginadas. Art Madrid'25.

ARACELI LÓPEZ

Entre ser y estar hemos construido un muro

Location: LÍNEA 1 (route between CUATRO CAMINOS and PACÍFICO)

Time: 18:00 - 20:00h

Entre ser y estar hemos construido un muro is an action that analyzes how, in each generation, the boundaries between the individual and the collective are altered, transformed, and redrawn according to the circumstances. Between these two poles, contradiction becomes our constant companion. We are beings capable of distancing ourselves from ourselves, of getting lost in the space between what we are and what we show the world.

The performative action stands as the bridge that crosses this contradiction, a space where opposites are not antagonistic but elements that coexist and feed into each other. The action seeks to unify being and being, merging these two dimensions into an experience that goes beyond the verbal and the tangible.

The Spanish language, with its distinction between ‘ser’ and ‘estar,’ turns this duality into a powerful tool for exploring human nature. The ‘ser,’ intangible, elusive, unreachable, cannot be defined with precision. It is something that transcends the limits of words, something that resists being trapped in a fixed concept. Being is the truth that is never fully grasped; it is the ungraspable that dwells deep within our being.

On the other hand, ‘estar’ is something more tangible, a state that can be located in time and space. ‘Estar’ is presence, action, rest; it is what we see, what manifests in an instant. It is a continuous dialogue with the environment, the language shared by a culture, by a generation. ‘Estar’ is the visible, the present, what can be touched and understood within its limits.

The performative action seeks to unravel and make visible that dissociation, turning it into a palpable space. In this realm, ‘estar’ becomes a stage, the space where ‘ser’ can manifest freely, without the limits of what can be named, labeled, or immediately understood. In this space, what is seen is not a faithful representation of what we are, but a distorted reflection, a personal interpretation of being through the eyes of the other.

The performative act, by staging this contradiction, invites the spectator to inhabit that ambiguity and question the borders between what is and what is, between what we are and what we show.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Araceli López is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and cultural manager born in Madrid, with a background in audiovisual language and contemporary dance. She began her studies in Pre-Press and continued with Communication Technologies, specializing in the Expert Degree in 3D Studio Max. She has trained in contemporary dance at schools in Madrid such as Descalzinha Danza, Amor de Dios, and Bambú Danza. Her work explores the understanding and deconstruction of reality, reinterpreting it through various expressive languages. She seeks to combine these languages to foster communication and synergies between them. Focused on the coding, conversion, and translation of ideas, her main approach is to transfer concepts from one language to another. As expressive media, she uses the body, words, drawing, painting, and audiovisual language.

She has collaborated in various radio programs, collectives, festivals, and artistic projects such as the James Joyce Lacanian Circle, CRUCE Contemporary Art and Thought, Ésta es una PLAZA!, PEPA Performance, PROYECTOR/Plataforma de Videoart, OMCRadio, and the radio station of the National University of Colombia (UNIMEDIOS), contributing dance-performance pieces, visual art, poetry, photography, and audiovisual works, as well as serving as a coordinator and part of the curatorial team. After writing for several blogs, she published the poetry collections Mirar o parecido (2018) and El agua y el cuello – Poesía de emergencia (2022). In 2023, she was included in the book El Escorial: Antología Lírica desde el siglo XVI al año 2023. She is a co-founder and active member of the artistic collectives CONJUNTAS P-r-y-c-t-s, alongside Denisse Nadeau, and LAC, a group dedicated to interdisciplinary improvisation formed in 2020, along with artists such as Wade Mathews, Blanca Regina, Mario G. Cru, Gary Hill, and Proyecto Chilco.

Andrés Montes. Arquitecturas Imaginadas. Art Madrid'25.

ANDRÉS MONTES

En tránsito

Location: LÍNEA 2 (route between CUATRO CAMINOS and VENTAS)

Time: 18:00 - 20:00h

In Transit

is a travelling narrative device,

It is an archive of memory,

it is an action as a gaze,

It is a question.

The action consists of taking people's stories for a walk in the subway through loudspeakers.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

"I am a visual artist and I like words. In Berlin I realised that there was something mysterious hidden in the newspapers. I remember the Libertad neighbourhood in Tijuana at night (it was cold). I also walked along the Bay of Biscay for 17 days. And another time I walked from El Limón to Guamúchil (that was much earlier). My name is Andrés Montes and I am one of those people who believe that we are the story we tell ourselves, ergo we are fiction. I play with land. I have a son. It's five in the morning".

NEBRIJA UNIVERSITY ASSERTS AESTHETIC INTELLIGENCE IN THE FACE OF THE ALGORITHMIC ERA AT ART MADRID’26

The Nebrija Space hosts a curatorial project that proposes a critical alternative to the automation of creative thought.

Nebrija University is participating in the 21st edition of Art Madrid with a curatorial project that offers a critical reflection on the relationship between art education, the market, and technology. Under the concept of Aesthetic Intelligence, the proposal positions itself as an alternative to the algorithmic logic of Artificial Intelligence, prioritizing sensitivity, gesture, materiality, and experience as forms of knowledge that cannot be automated.

At a historic moment in which Artificial Intelligence is bursting onto the scene in all areas of cultural production, generating both fascination and concern, Nebrija University is committed to defending those dimensions of the artistic experience that remain irreducible to algorithmic logic. This is not a question of denying the impact of technology or adopting a technophobic stance, but rather of identifying and defending those areas of knowledge that require the presence of the body, sensitivity, gesture, and lived experience.

Álvaro Fernández. Remember/Forget. Mixed media on canvas. 40 x 60 cm. 2026.

The central concept of the proposal is that of Aesthetic Intelligence, understood as a form of knowledge that integrates the sensory, the affective, the intuitive, and the cultural. In contrast to the logic of Artificial Intelligence, based on algorithms, recognition patterns, and the capacity for mass replication, Aesthetic Intelligence prioritizes dimensions that remain anchored in the unique human experience: the unique and unrepeatable gesture, the physical presence of the body in the creative act, the material texture of the supports and pigments, and the temporality of the creative process.

This claim takes on special importance in a context in which generative AI is capable of producing images in a matter of seconds, processing millions of previous visual references to synthesize new compositions. However, what the machine cannot replicate is precisely what constitutes the core of the aesthetic experience. The affective resonance of a specific color applied with a certain pressure on a specific surface, the intuitive decision that arises from the dialogue between the artist and the material, or the productive error that opens up unexpected paths.

Aesthetic Intelligence is thus understood as a form of epistemic resistance, a defense of those ways of knowing the world that cannot be automated because they are constitutively linked to the embodied, situated, and temporal experience of creative subjects.

Pablo Padilla Sadurni. ST. Repaired passe-partout and acrylic. 18 x 18 x 48 cm. 2026.

Under the provocative neologism NotanIA SipedagogIE, which encapsulates the conceptual proposal in its very formulation: “Not so much AI, more pedagogy.” This linguistic construction, which plays with the presence and absence of fragments of the words “Artificial Intelligence” and “pedagogy,” signals a clear stance on the role of artistic training in today's technological context.

It proposes a critical pedagogy that does not reject technology but refuses to subordinate artistic learning processes to the logic of efficiency, optimization, and reproduction that characterize algorithmic systems. Faced with the temptation to use AI as a shortcut or substitute for the creative process, this pedagogy vindicates the formative value of trial and error, material experimentation, and time devoted to exploration without a predetermined goal.

A pedagogy that is also defined as empathetic, in the sense that it recognizes and values the affective and relational dimension of artistic learning, which does not understand creation as an isolated individual act but as a process that involves emotional resonances, symbolic exchanges, and collective construction of meaning. The stand itself, conceived as a choral work, embodies this understanding of creation as a shared experience.

Verónica Bergua Tabuyo. Cartography of Uncle Pablo. Digital video. Edition: 1/5. 2:40 min. 2026.

The methodology proposed for the project is as rigorous as it is open to experimentation. Each participating student begins their creative process by poetically appropriating a verse, a stanza that will serve as the conceptual and emotional seed of the work. The choice of poetry, as a form of language that condenses multiple and ambiguous meanings, that works with sonic and visual resonances, that suggests rather than describes, constitutes an ideal starting point for a project that champions the ineffable, that which cannot be fully translated into code.

Starting with the selection of a verse, each artist has developed a mood board conceived as a board of atmospheres and, at the same time, as a sensitive cartography of the process. This resource allows the imagery of the verse to be expanded through objects, images, textures, materials, and other elements that resonate with the initial poetic experience. It is a tool that makes the process of intersemiotic translation visible: the transition from verbal to visual language, from textual to material, highlighting the transformations and shifts that occur along the way.

The next step involves developing a two-dimensional work that deliberately avoids written language. This restriction seeks to prioritize visual and material exploration over textual narrative, relying on the communicative power of form, color, texture, and composition. The work must speak for itself, without the need for verbal explanations to mediate between the piece and the viewer.

The creative process is conceived from an experimental logic similar to that of a laboratory, where trial, error, correction, and rehearsal are an integral part of the method. No predetermined result is sought; rather, the work is allowed to emerge from the dialogue between the initial intention and the possibilities (and resistances) of the materials.

Blanca Lanaspa. Witness 176.8. Mixed media ceramics. 40.8 x 176.8 cm. 2026.

The booth that houses the Nebrija Space is conceived as a work of art in itself, with a choral and transitory character. Inspired by Madrid's SER Zones, those areas of regulated temporary parking, the exhibition space is designed as a territory of symbolic transit, a place of ephemeral occupation that invites reflection on presence, desire, and temporality.

This metaphor of SER Zones is particularly powerful, because just as these urban spaces allow for the temporary occupation of public space under certain conditions, the stand is presented as a territory that artists temporarily occupy during the fair, establishing a dialogue between permanence (the works as physical objects that will remain after the event) and transience (the specific spatial configuration that exists only during the days of the fair).

The choral nature of the project underscores the collective dimension of artistic creation. It is not a sum of individualities but a polyphony of voices that intertwine, resonate, and dialogue with each other. Each individual work maintains its autonomy but takes on new meanings in relation to the others, generating a fabric of visual, conceptual, and affective correspondences.

Marialex Arcaya. The wine cellar. Acrylic on wood. 80 x 160 cm. 2026.

The project brings together the work of seven students from the Fine Arts Degree program at Nebrija University: Marialex Arcaya develops “La bodega” (The Cellar), a reflection on everyday objects as containers of memory and identity. Based on the verse: "And at the bottom of my favorite beach bag there is sand, rusty coins, and a receipt for ice cream that no longer exists. Summer can be preserved in layers", the artist explores Venezuelan bodegas as spaces of nostalgia and belonging. Through a series of acrylic paintings on canvas depicting products and packaging, she investigates how the most mundane objects can function as repositories of memories and markers of cultural identity. Her work raises questions about what we erase and what we preserve, about how the passage of time transforms both objects and ourselves, celebrating the capacity for rebirth and transformation that characterizes the human experience.

Laura Nogales. Another Spring. Acrylic and embroidery on canvas. 94.5 x 38.6 inches. 2026.

Laura Nogales participates with “Another Spring,” a textile installation that explores the decomposition and deconstruction of the concept of femininity in a transitory environment: the shower. Her work, constructed from scraps, recycled clothing remnants, stockings, and various types of fillings, forms an abstract mass that represents decomposed femininity in constant mutation. The drain functions as a symbolic element that swallows everything, witnessing intimate transformations. Nogales addresses how femininity as a shared experience suffers great ups and downs in the current context, where machismo is making a strong comeback in the media and social networks. Her textile proposal generates emotional ambiguity in the viewer, who may feel attracted or repelled by the figure, reflecting the contradictions inherent in the experience of constructing and defending female identity in an adverse context. Her work takes as its reference the fragment of the poem: “Above the shower, the steam draws maps that fade away".

Inés López. Sedentary. Digital photography. 30 x 40 cm. 2026.

Inés López presents Sedentario, a work inspired by the verse: “There, dust particles are an archive in suspension.” The project reflects on the capacity of domestic spaces to preserve what the body forgets when they cease to be inhabited. The photographic series is set inside a house under construction, in rooms suspended between use and abandonment, where absence manifests itself as a silent accumulation of matter, traces, and time. Architectural plans and projections in an unfinished building expand the proposal, establishing a dialogue between the projected space and the lived space, between what was once inhabited and what has not yet begun to be inhabited. The work thus proposes a meditation on the transience of the body in the face of the silent persistence of architecture.

Verónica Bergua Tabuyo. Cartography of Uncle Pablo. Digital video. Edition: 1/5. 2:40 min. 2026.

Verónica Bergua presents “Cartografía del tío Pablo” (Uncle Pablo's Cartography), a deeply personal project that explores the relationship between compulsive hoarding, mental health, and emotional territory. Through a video installation that combines minimalist photography of objects taken from the room of her uncle, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, Diogenes syndrome, and kleptomania, Bergua constructs a visual map of mental chaos materialized in physical space. The sequence of images, presented at varying speeds, generates an experience of anxiety in the viewer that reflects the nature of compulsive hoarding. Her work invites us to reflect on our own relationship with objects, on the boundaries between need and attachment, and on how the territory we inhabit can become a mirror of our mental territory. His proposal is inspired by the verses: “Under the bed... objects accumulate that we don't remember losing.” “A museum without texts or labels: the drawer of cables from broken devices.” “The box of expired medicines holds the history of ailments that no longer hurt.”

Blanca Lanaspa. Witness 176.8. Mixed media ceramics. 40.8 x 176.8 cm. 2026.

Blanca Lanaspa presents “Testigo 176.8,” a work based on the verse: "The coat rack in the entrance holds what we are before we enter and after we leave. A vertical threshold where transitions hang.“ Her proposal takes the form of a ceramic pegboard, a combinatorial board with removable pieces of different surfaces, glazes, and textures. Each element functions as a ”sensitive accident," the result of processes involving both aesthetic planning and material chance. The pieces explore states of matter: sprouts, leaks, overflows, erosions, cracked surfaces, contractions, and expansions. The tactile and interactive nature of the work invites the viewer to engage with it directly through their body. Accompanied by a mood board documenting the ceramic research process, the piece celebrates the unpredictability of materials and the beauty of the unsystematic.

Pablo Padilla Sadurni. ST. Detail. Repaired mat and acrylic. 7.1 x 7.1 x 18.7 inches. 2026.

Pablo Padilla presents “Untitled,” an architectural sculpture inspired by the verse: “The mismatched sock is not lost: it inhabits a place that does not exist.” Conceived as a spatial analogy for the search for fulfillment, the piece proposes an architectural archetype that refers to the world of ideas; an imagined place, necessary and yet unattainable. Constructed from thin cardboard, the work takes the form of impossible, labyrinthine structures inhabited by scale figures that wander through corridors, staircases, and dead-end rooms. These spaces, simultaneously tense and contemplative, combine the romanticism of introspection with the inhospitable coldness of brutalism. The work creates a surreal atmosphere that oscillates between peaceful and tense, inviting a sensory and emotional experience of shared loneliness, isolation, and the search for mental refuges that do not exist in the physical world.

Álvaro Fernández. Remember/Forget. Detail. Mixed media on canvas. 40 x 60 cm. 2026.

Álvaro Fernández presents “Remember/Forget,” a work inspired by the verse: "In the elevator mirror, two people are reflected without touching each other. What separates them is not air: it is the possibility of saying nothing." Through hybrid works that combine manual transfers on fabric with digitally altered photographs, Fernández explores silence, shared presence, and the coexistence of intimate worlds that do not touch. His transfers, made using gel plates or lavender oil, generate unstable and deteriorated images, like memories in the process of fading. The fragmentation and displacement of photographic elements multiply the scenes, creating layers of overlapping temporality. His work materializes the fragility of memories and the power of silence as a space for nonverbal intimacy.

Blanca Lanaspa. Witness 176.8. Mixed media ceramics. 40.8 x 176.8 cm. 2026.

At a time when the debate on Artificial Intelligence and artistic creation is intensifying, with positions ranging from uncritical enthusiasm to outright rejection, Nebrija University's proposal for Art Madrid'26 offers a third way, a critical stance that does not deny technological reality but clearly defends those dimensions of the artistic experience that remain irreducible to automation.

The concept of Aesthetic Intelligence proposes an epistemological alternative that recognizes the validity of forms of knowledge based on sensitivity, intuition, bodily experience, and affective resonance. These are not “minor” or subsidiary forms of knowledge with respect to rational or algorithmic knowledge, but equally valid modalities that are absolutely fundamental in the field of artistic creation.

This curatorial project thus represents a valuable contribution to the contemporary debate on technology and culture, proposing that university art education should not be limited to preparing students to adapt to the market or the tools available, but should equip them with critical skills, material sensitivity, and awareness of the specificity of their practice.

Art Madrid'26 will thus host a proposal that, beyond its individual aesthetic quality, constitutes a collective reflection on the present and future of artistic creation, on the role of educational institutions in training new generations of artists, and on the need to defend spaces for experimentation, slowness, and materiality in an accelerated and increasingly virtualized world. Through this project, Nebrija University reaffirms the irreplaceable value of Aesthetic Intelligence as a form of knowledge and as a practice of resistance against algorithmic homogenization, committing to a pedagogy that places sensory experience, bodily gesture, and affective resonance at the center as fundamental dimensions of the human condition.