Although we know that commitments get crowded these dates and that meals, dinners, visits and events accumulate without giving truce, there is always a chance to make room to disconnect and enjoy contemporary art with family. Here we bring you a list of some of the most interesting and entertaining cultural activities so that everyone enjoys these holidays between ‘turrón’ and grapes.

Workshops ‘¿Soy yo?’ and ‘Viaje espacial’ at the CGAC

One way to get to know contemporary art is to see it and live it in person while working on some of the concepts present in the exhibitions. The proposal of the CGAC (Santiago de Compostela) is to work, on the one hand, the last series of Jesús Madriñán focused on the people he was portraying when travelling the Camino de Santiago and that allows to delve into concepts such as inclusion and gender diversity and, on the other, the showing of the artist Pedro Cabrita Reis, who reworks objects through found elements and helps us to work the notion of reconversion, destruction and reconstruction. The workshops propose activities linked to the visit of these exhibitions to bring contemporary art to the kids of the house.

21st and 22nd December | From 4 to 9 years old

Workshop ‘App Inventor’ at Espacio Fundación Telefónica

To get into the technology and know some of its many applications, this workshop for teenagers proposes some important keys, without forgetting the responsibility in the use of these devices. A recreational and educational activity that will allow you to get the most out of a tablet while introducing us to the programming language.

26th and 27th December 2019 and 2nd and 3rd January 2020 | From 12 years old on

Workshop ‘Navidad en el museo’, at the Lázaro Galdiano Museum

A good way to soak up the Christmas spirit is to participate in the preparation of decorations, ornaments, gifts and greeting cards that are so exciting at this time. Putting themselves in the shoes of a true artist, participants will be able to tour the galleries of the museum and their showrooms while they soak up the works that reign the space and blow up their imagination in the crafts that they then carry out.

26th and 27th December 2019 and 2nd and 3rd January 2020 | From 5 to 12 years old

‘Este año la Navidad es… ¡verde!’, at the Guggenheim Bilbao

To raise awareness about the need to care for the planet and adopt sustainable practices in our day-to-day lives, the Guggenheim Museum proposes dynamic programming to address these issues by solving puzzles and always keeping in mind the art and work of the artists. In addition, one of the workshops, taught by the artists in residence Miren Arenzana, Zaloa Ipiña and Karlos Martínez Bordoy, will make the little ones reflect on the value of gifts and the possibility of emphasising non-materialistic elements.

From the 20th December 2019 to the 3rd January 2020 | From 3 to 11 years old

‘VaCAACiones’ at the CAAC (Andalusian Centre of Contemporary Art)

The whole family is invited to know the works of the CAAC collection through entertaining and dynamic activities that will allow them to visit and investigate something else in the work of Amalia Pica (Neuquén, Argentina, 1978) and Juan Suárez (El Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, 1946). The workshop wants to encourage the creative contribution of visitors, to feed their imagination and development, while putting in value the contemporary art that can be seen in the centre.

26th and 27th December 2019 and 2nd and 3rd January 2020

ABIERTO INFINITO. LO QUE EL CUERPO RECUERDA. CICLO DE PERFORMANCE 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: OSCURECER UN PAPEL. BY ROCÍO VALDIVIESO

March 5 | 7:00 PM. Galería de Cristal of the Palacio de Cibeles.

Nocturnality. Installation. Rocío Valdivieso..

Oscurecer un papel forms part of a series of actions in which the artist engages in reading through repetition, memorization, and a measured degree of improvisation. Within this framework, a non-linear mode of reading emerges from a written text that is transformed when spoken aloud, assuming a different form in the act of articulation. The texts stem from an ongoing investigation into materiality, space, the relationships between body and matter, writing, the sculptural, and a sustained interest in the exploration of voice and orality.

The material from which Oscurecer un papel is constructed consists of a collection of purchase receipts the artist has been accumulating over time. The printed text they contain, together with the action of bringing them into proximity with a heat source—thereby activating the thermal paper on which they are produced—generates meanings that revolve around the notions of consumption and wear.

Rocío Valdivieso. Latent Aura. Performance documentation.

ABOUT ROCÍO VALDIVIESO

Rocío Valdivieso is an artist, researcher, and cultural manager. She is currently a PhD candidate in Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid. She holds an MA in Research in Artistic Practices from the University of Castilla–La Mancha (UCLM) and a BA in Fine Arts from the National University of Tucumán, Argentina. She was a Fundación Carolina fellow from 2022 to 2023. She currently co-directs Errática. Laboratory of Processes and Critique in Madrid, alongside Romina Casile.

She was part of the PEEPA 2023 Program at the Centro de Residencias Artísticas, Matadero Madrid. She completed the 2021/22 Artists Program at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, and in 2020 participated in the Intensive Curatorial Program of Proyecto PAC at Galería Gachi Prieto, Buenos Aires. She received the Visual Arts Promotion Award at the 4th Visual Arts Week of the Ente Cultural de Tucumán. She was awarded an AUGM scholarship for an exchange residency at UNESP, São Paulo, Brazil. She also participated in the International Residency Program La Ira de Dios and in the Acéfala Galería Residency for Argentine artists.