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MOMENTUM: AN AUGMENTED REALITY EXPERIENCE (AR) AT ART MADRID'25

From March 5 to 9, Montalbán street will transform into an immersive digital environment with Ciudad Sutil, an innovative augmented reality experience led by multimedia artist Susi Vetter. This project is curated in collaboration with CRU and is part of the parallel program of Art Madrid'25. The proposal invites the public to explore an alternative layer of reality through technology, offering a sublimated vision of the urban environment and the city's landscape.

Momentum. Digital scketch. WIP.

Ciudad Sutil: A new way of inhabiting urban space.

Ciudad Sutil is a program that proposes ephemeral artistic interventions in public spaces, exploring new ways of inhabiting and perceiving the city. Through digital art and augmented reality, it seeks to reveal hidden layers of the urban environment, questioning the rigidity of the built landscape and opening spaces for imagination and reflection on our relationship with the city and nature.

Susi Vetter. Momentum. AR Art Installation. Technologies used: Adobe After Effects & Photoshop, Procreate, Blender. Processor: 8th Wall. 2025.

Momentum: Redefining the relationship between City and Nature

In Momentum, the urban landscape with its ordered architecture, paved streets, and precise geometry suddenly opens up to reveal a living canvas that challenges our perception of city spaces. At the end of the street, a forest emerges between the buildings. From this wild growth, a giant mask arises, initially blank and inert, which is pushed upward toward a triangulated glass ceiling, reminiscent of the Galería de Cristal of the Palacio de Cibeles. The mask remains suspended there, between the artificial world below and the contained sky above.

Its eyes slowly open, as if seeing the world for the first time. From one of them, tender plants begin to sprout, initially shy, then with increasing vigor, transforming the sterile façade into a living, organic entity.

As nature claims the mask, the glass ceiling above it – that meticulous human attempt to frame the sky – begins to crack. Fragments of glass fall like rain, breaking the barrier between the built space and the open air. The mask, now covered in vegetation, slowly descends until it disappears.

Momentum. Digital scketch.

A reflection about the urban future

This augmented reality experience invites us to reconsider our relationship with the natural world in urban environments. The street, with its rigid lines and concrete certainty, becomes a space for exploration to imagine new forms of coexistence between the built and the organic. The mask symbolizes our artificial relationship with nature — how we perceive ourselves as separate from the wild, until nature finds ways to break into our spaces.

In the age of the Anthropocene, where human impact shapes every ecosystem, Urban Rewilding questions whether our future lies in continuous separation or in seeking new ways of coexistence between our built world and natural systems. As the boundaries between the city and the forest blur in this augmented reality experience, we glimpse possibilities for urban spaces where nature is not just a contained or decorative element, but an essential and transformative force.

Technology and creative process

The piece Momentum has been developed using various digital tools, including Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, Procreate, and Blender. Its processing is based on the 8th Wall platform, allowing for a seamless and immersive integration of virtual elements into the urban landscape.

Susi Vetter. Invited artist at Ciudad Sutil.

About the artist: Susi Vetter

Susi Vetter is an illustrator and multimedia artist based in Berlin. Her work focuses on telling immersive stories that blur the boundaries between physical and digital realities. Her tools include the web, augmented reality, and map projections, with the aim of creating experiences that invite reflection on the relationship between humans and their environment.

From March 5th to 9th, at Montalbán street 1, at the entrance of the Galería de cristal of the Palacio de Cibeles, you can enjoy Momentum.

At the most recent edition of Art Madrid, artist Luis Olaso (Bilbao, 1986), represented by Kur Art Gallery (San Sebastián), received the Residency Prize of the Art Madrid Patronage Program. This award, the result of a collaboration between Art Madrid, DOM Art Residence, and the Italian association ExtrArtis, enabled him to undertake an artistic residency in Sorrento (Italy) in August 2025.

Through initiatives like this, the fair reaffirms its support for contemporary creation—a commitment aimed at increasing artists’ visibility and strengthening art collecting through concrete actions such as acquisition prizes, recognition of emerging talents, and international residencies.

Artists in Residence. DOM & ExtrArtis. Image courtesy of Agata D’Esposito.

The DOM & ExtrArtis 2025 Residency Program took place in Sorrento from August 1 to 31, 2025. The artists lived together at Relais La Rupe, a 16th-century villa surrounded by cliffs and centuries-old gardens, which became an ideal setting for experimentation and exchange.

In this edition, residents worked around the theme “Reimagining Genius Loci”, an invitation to reflect on how the movement of people and traditions transforms the “spirit of place.” During the residency, DOM organized two public group exhibitions: the first to present the artists’ previous work, and the second to showcase the projects developed in Sorrento.

Work by Luis Olaso. DOM & ExtrArtis. Image courtesy of Agata D’Esposito.

Luis Olaso’s work moves between expressionist figuration and abstraction, always employing a pictorial language charged with strength and emotion. Initially self-taught, he later graduated in Fine Arts and has developed a solid international career, with exhibitions at venues including JD Malat (London) and Makasiini Contemporary (Turku, Finland), and participation in fairs such as Untitled Miami, Estampa, and Art Madrid itself.

His work is part of prestigious collections, including the Tokyo Contemporary Art Foundation, Fundación SIMCO, and the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, and has been recognized in competitions such as the Reina Sofía Prize for Painting and Sculpture and the Ibercaja Young Painting Prize.

In Sorrento, Olaso found a unique context to expand his pictorial research, engaging in dialogue with the Mediterranean landscape and the region’s historical heritage. The residency provided him with time, resources, and a framework for exchange with other international artists, fostering the production of new works that were later presented in the group exhibitions organized by DOM.

Luis Olaso working on his project. DOM & ExtrArtis. Image courtesy of DOM.

Luis Olaso’s experience at DOM Art Residence concluded with a public showcase of the works produced, reinforcing his presence on the international circuit and consolidating his position as one of the most prominent Basque artists on the contemporary scene.

Through initiatives such as this, Art Madrid demonstrates its active role as a platform for direct support of contemporary creation, creating opportunities for research, production, and intercultural dialogue that extend beyond the fair itself and accompany artists in their professional development.