Within the last edition of the fair, Art Madrid carried out a collaborative action, on Tuesday 25th of February, with the arts & crafts public school Artediez, also joined by Liquitex, a benchmark brand in the manufacture of products for fine arts.

This project rmatches one of the fair's essential goals: to support young talent and encourage artistic creation from its inception. The profile of students at the school is varied since it provides training in photography, audiovisuals, illustration, industrial, fashion and graphic design, but all of them share the same concerns about artistic expression as well as the vital choice to make of it their profession. Artediez, moreover, makes efforts to support the work of its students with various exhibition proposals, contests or conducting travelling exhibitions, a work of visibility that undoubtedly pays off.

On this occasion, and within the framework of the fair and the activities program that we carry out every year, the collaboration with the school was divided into two actions, one of training and the other one of artistic creation, and in both, we had the contribution of Liquitex. The brand supported the proposal with materials and the organisation of a practical workshop, for students and the general public, on the use of acrylics and conservation of works of art taught by one of its artist ambassadors: Miguel Torrús. The objective was, on the one hand, to promote the creativity of young people by carrying out an exclusive artwork that was exhibited in the school itself and, on the other hand, to expand their knowledge and skills with this workshop, which Miguel conceived as practical training on technique and methodology to get the most out of the materials used while taking into account the conservation of the works and their long-term durability.

Liquitex is a brand of high-quality acrylics part of the Winsor & Newton group, manufacturer of fine art products since 1820. Liquitex characterises by the production of high-quality pigment paints, something that guarantees its durability, colour preservation and brightness and luminosity over time. Several artists specialised in this technique have joined forces with the brand to serve as ambassadors. This is the case of Miguel Torrús, a creator with more than 30 years of experience that has wide international recognition and works particularly with acrylics and watercolours. His work moves between expressionist figurative art and pure abstraction, and is part of important collections inside and outside Spain, in addition to having obtained countless awards and mentions. His collaboration with Liquitex is also based on his deep knowledge of each technique and his ability to fully exploit the capabilities of the materials. As he himself explains:

“my main function is to be able to teach both the professional artist, the student and the amateur painter the possibilities of the material, make them know all the possibilities of colour, of a medium, force them to leave their 'comfort zone' and that they know new pigments, new materials, new possibilities.”

The result was a very busy training session in which both students and the general public participated. During the workshop, everything learned was put into practice and tests were made with the materials, the different pigments and their characteristics on different supports.

But in addition to this training workshop, Artediez invited one of his students, the artist María Elvira Bárbara (@elvirambarbara), to carry out an intervention on the school premises using the materials provided by Liquitex. The chosen space was the glass pane of the main entrance, which allows the work to be seen in front and behind, as well as playing with the dimensions and the fixed elements of the structure onto the piece. Elvira Bárbara chose for the occasion bird motifs with which she invaded the glass surface with feathers and wings outlined in white, grey and black. A whole day of painting that resulted in a spectacular artwork to welcome students and visitors to the school.

Ana García Angulo, Head of the Artediez Promotion and Development Department, has been in charge of this collaboration with Art Madrid and has managed the actions from the school, showing enormous enthusiasm for the project from the beginning. Given the interest of the centre to expand the range of options of its teaching programs, in addition to enabling new experiences for its students, this proposal has been widely appreciated by all and enjoyed not only by students but by all teachers and visitors to the school.

From Art Madrid, we will continue working to support the education sector and foster creativity and young talent from the beginning, because those will be the artists of tomorrow.

The practice of the collective DIMASLA (Diana + Álvaro) is situated at a fertile intersection between contemporary art, ecological thinking, and a philosophy of experience that shifts the emphasis from production to attention. Faced with the visual and material acceleration of the present, their work does not propose a head-on opposition, but rather a sensitive reconciliation with time, understood as lived duration rather than as a measure. The work thus emerges as an exercise in slowing down, a pedagogy of perception where contemplating and listening become modes of knowledge.

In the work of DIMASLA (Diana + Álvaro), the territory does not function as a framework but rather as an agent. The landscape actively participates in the process, establishing a dialogical relationship reminiscent of certain eco-critical currents, in which subjectivity is decentralized and recognized as part of a broader framework. This openness implies an ethic of exposure, which is defined as the act of exposing oneself to the climate, the elements, and the unpredictable, and this means accepting vulnerability as an epistemological condition.

The materials—fabrics, pigments, and footprints—serve as surfaces for temporary inscriptions and memories, bearing the marks of time. The initial planning is conceived as an open hypothesis, allowing chance and error to act as productive forces. In this way, the artistic practice of DIMASLA (Diana + Álvaro) articulates a poetics of care and being-with, where creating is, above all, a profound way of feeling and understanding nature.

In a historical moment marked by speed and the overproduction of images, your work seems to champion slowness and listening as forms of resistance. Could it be said that your practice proposes a way of relearning time through aesthetic experience?

Diana: Yes, but more than resistance or vindication, I would speak of reconciliation—of love. It may appear slow, but it is deliberation; it is reflection. Filling time with contemplation or listening is a way of feeling. Aesthetic experience leads us along a path of reflection on what lies outside us and what lies within.

The territory does not appear in your work as a backdrop or a setting, but as an interlocutor. How do you negotiate that conversation between the artist’s will and the voice of the place, when the landscape itself participates in the creative process?

Álvaro: For us, the landscape is like a life partner or a close friend, and naturally this intimate relationship extends into our practice. We go to visit it, to be with it, to co-create together. We engage in a dialogue that goes beyond aesthetics—conversations filled with action, contemplation, understanding, and respect.

Ultimately, in a way, the landscape expresses itself through the material. We respect all the questions it poses, while at the same time valuing what unsettles us, what shapes us, and what stimulates us within this relationship.

The Conquest of the Rabbits I & II. 2021. Process.

In your approach, one senses an ethic of exposure: exposing oneself to the environment, to the weather, to others, to the unpredictable. To what extent is this vulnerability also a form of knowledge?

Diana: For us, this vulnerability teaches us a great deal—above all, humility. When we are out there and feel the cold, the rain, or the sun, we become aware of how small and insignificant we are in comparison to the grandeur and power of nature.

So yes, we understand vulnerability as a profound source of knowledge—one that helps us, among many other things, to let go of our ego and to understand that we are only a small part of a far more complex web.

Sometimes mountains cry too. 2021. Limestone rockfall, sun, rain, wind, pine resin on acrylic on natural cotton canvas, exposed on a blanket of esparto grass and limestone for two months.. 195 cm x 130 cm x 3 cm.

Your works often emerge from prolonged processes of exposure to the environment. Could it be said that the material—the fabrics, the pigments, the traces of the environment—acts as a memory that time writes on you as much as you write on it?

Álvaro: This is a topic for a long conversation, sitting on a rock—it would be very stimulating. But if experiences shape people’s inner lives and define who we are in the present moment, then I would say yes, especially in that sense.

Leaving our comfort zone has led us to learn from the perseverance of plants and the geological calm of mountains. Through this process, we have reconciled ourselves with time, with the environment, with nature, with ourselves, and even with our own practice. Just as fabrics hold the memory of a place, we have relearned how to pay attention and how to understand. Ultimately, it is a way of deepening our capacity to feel.

The fox and his tricks. 2022. Detail.

To what extent do you plan your work, and how much space do you leave for the unexpected—or even for mistakes?

Diana: Our planning is limited to an initial hypothesis. We choose the materials, colours, places, and sometimes even the specific location, but we leave as much room as possible for the unexpected to occur. In the end, that is what it is really about: allowing nature to speak and life to unfold. For us, both the unexpected and mistakes are part of the world’s complexity, and within that complexity we find a form of natural beauty.