Art Madrid'26 – ART AGENDA FOR SUMMER’19: WHAT YOU CANNOT MISS THIS AUGUST

Summer is the ideal occasion to enjoy culture and art in a more relaxed way, outside the rush of the rest of the year. In addition to resting and regaining strength, it is good to take advantage of all the cultural activities scheduled at this time to help us stand the heat.

MADRID

Rogelio López Cuenca awaits us at the Reina Sofía Museum with the exhibition “Yendo leyendo, dando lugar”. This is the first monographic exhibition that the Centre dedicates to this creator of Nerja, obsessed with the power of language and plasticity that the message can adopt in its many forms and over time. From his beginnings in the 80s with collaborative works that merged different disciplines, until he changed direction in the mid-90s, becoming more reflective and critical with the system, López Cuenca shares his concern around essential topics for the individual of our time, such as the migratory flows, historical memory or urban speculation. Until August 26th.

Rogelio López Cuenca, “Traverser”, 1986. Yñiguez Aragón Collection (via museoreinasofia.es)

SEVILLE

In 2019, the memorable trip to the Moon turns 50 years, a unique event that marked the history of events of the twentieth century. CaixaForum joins the commemorations with a funny and close exhibition about the work of Hergé and his famous character Tintin. Because Hergé was a visionary and, years before the first human-crewed mission left the planet, he had already put these charismatic protagonists in orbit. “Tintin and the Moon” covers a large part of the most famous and well-known space missions, in addition to planning a journey through the history of space exploration by the hand of Tintin and Milú. Until October 27th.

VALENCIA

Any occasion is a good moment to review the work of Fernando Léger, one of the parents of modernism. The IVAM, in collaboration with Tate Liverpool, organises this exhibition that brings together fifty pieces of the author, as well as videos, fabrics and murals, with which to take a tour of the trajectory of this Parisian creator. Besides, the exhibition revisits some key points of his artistic role and emphasises his profile of political criticism, being Léger, as he was, a staunch defender of the social function of art for all.

Fernando Léger, “Le tableau Les Constructeurs”, 1950

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA

Media has extensively covered the refugee drama in recent years. However, the approach to the problem has sensationalist dyes that emphasise the drama of the experience lived by its protagonists and the catastrophic consequences of many failed trips. The CGAC of Santiago de Compostela brings together the work of about twenty contemporary artists under the curatorship of Piedad Solans and Santiago Olmo, in an exhibition that addresses this human conflict with a historical perspective and with less emphasis on the journalistic dissemination of the situation. Because societies and identities are also built on the basis of the flows of people. Exile has been, is and will be a great engine of cultural exchange and must be faced as a reality not exceptional, but purely human. "We refugees", until October 13th.

Roland Fischer, “Refugees”, 2016. (via cgac web, courtesy of the artist)

BARCELONA

With educational vocation, the CCCB hosts the exhibition “Quantum”, a project that gathers the joint work of artists and scientists to facilitate the explanation of concepts related to quantum physics. The tour splits into two parts, on the one hand, the work of ten artists who introduce these notions in their work to demonstrate that quantum physics transcends the purely theoretical level of academicism, and, on the other, the development and results of nine research projects around this theoretical physics approach. The visitor faces a multitude of questions about our reality and the perception of the world in an enriching and different experience that will make us rethink the traditional postulates of the known. Until September 24th.

LEON

The exhibition “El giro notacional” of the MUSAC delves into the power of the notation systems in the different fields in which they apply, not only for academic purposes but also for reflection. The desire to limit something, to translate it into a universally understandable encrypted language is at the same time, a form of intervention that eliminates the arbitrariness and freedom of things that happen without a pre-established order. This collective exhibition brings together the work of a large group of artists under the curatorship of José Iges and Manuel Olveira. The route articulates around five main axes: the musical notation, the mathematical and scientific world, the notations of the kinetic movement, those of cartography and space and, finally, those of thought. Until September 15th.

Josep Maria Mestres Quadreny, “Aronada”, 1971.

 


ABIERTO INFINITO. LO QUE EL CUERPO RECUERDA. PERFORMANCE CYCLE X ART MADRID'26


Art Madrid, committed to creating a discursive platform for artists working within the field of performance and action art, presents Abierto Infinito: lo que el cuerpo recuerda, a proposal inspired by Erving Goffman’s ideas in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Amorrortu Editores, Buenos Aires, 1997).

The project unfolds within a theoretical framework that directly engages with these premises, conceiving social interaction as a stage of carefully modulated performances designed to influence others’ perceptions. Goffman argues that individuals deploy both verbal and involuntary expressions to guide the interpretation of their behavior, sustaining roles and façades that define the situation for those who observe.

The body — the first territory of all representation — precedes both word and learned gesture. Human experience, conscious and unconscious alike, is inscribed within it. Abierto Infinito: lo que el cuerpo recuerda departs from this premise: representation inhabits existence itself, and life, understood as a succession of representations, transforms the body into a space of constant negotiation over who we are. In this passage, boundaries blur; the individual opens toward the collective, and the ephemeral acquires symbolic dimension. By inhabiting this interstice, performance simultaneously reveals the fragility of identity and the strength that emerges from encounter with others.


PERFORMANCE: ALTA FACTURA. BY COLECTIVO LA BURRA NEGRA

March 4 | 7:00 PM. Galería de Cristal of the Palacio de Cibeles.


"Discipline for Power.” Performance by La Burra Negra for Displacement of the Congress of Deputies by Roger Bernat. 2025.


Alta Factura subverts the conventional structure of the fashion runway to foreground the often-invisible processes that underpin artistic production. Through a series of conceptual textile works, the performance draws attention to the discipline of craft and the artist’s vulnerability, ultimately revealing those seams typically consigned to the margins, behind the scenes.


Colectivo La Burra Negra.


ABOUT EL COLECTIVO LA BURRA NEGRA

La Burra Negra is a nomadic performance art collective based in Málaga, founded in 2024 following its first residency in Totalán. The group is self-managed by Ascensión Soto Fernández, Gabriela Feldman de la Rocha, Sasha Camila Falcke, Sara Gema Domínguez Castillo, Sofía Barco Sánchez, and Regina Lagos González—six artists from diverse backgrounds and trajectories who met at the Hospital de Artistas at La Juan Gallery.

The collective brings together practitioners working across jewelry, painting, the performing arts, music, dance, cultural mediation, and arts management. Its activities include an annual residency in Totalán, the production of performative works, cultural mediation initiatives, and site-responsive interventions.

Since its inception, the collective has participated in the Periscopio series at La Térmica; presented A granel at the MVA in Málaga; carried out a number of actions in Totalán—the most recent during its second annual residency—and contributed its own proposals to the performance Displacement of the Congress of Deputies by Roger Bernat in Madrid.

At the core of La Burra Negra lies a commitment to collective creation and the exchange of knowledge. United in their effort to experiment with and disseminate performance art, the group explores the invisible dimensions of artistic labor—its temporalities, efforts, and relational dynamics, which so often remain unseen—as a form of critical affirmation.

Their practice emerges from dialogue and shared reflection, in the pursuit of decentralized spaces where art can be experienced and its processes made visible. Each residency and each action becomes an attempt to inhabit creation collectively, challenging conditions of precarity while fostering networks of care and collaboration that sustain both their own practice and that of those around them.