Like the collectable journals, the beginning of the school course, the inscriptions in the gym and a great list of new purposes that usually meet in September, this month also marks the beginning of the new season in the art world. Museums, galleries and cultural centres reorganise their calendar to shake summer off and face fall with a renewed schedule. And so that nobody gets surprises, we bring you some of the most interesting activities that the new course holds for us.

CANIDO (FERROL)

Las Meninas de Canido returns with its 11th edition, from August 31st to September 2nd. Since the launch of the idea in 2008, the project has gained in quality and recognition. The artist Eduardo Hermida is the promoter of this initiative that was born to revitalise the most depressed areas of the Canido neighbourhood, in Ferrol, especially affected by the crisis and the change of business model that had left the industrial fabric of the place very weakened. After ten years of work, not only part of the activity has been recovered, but the neighbourhood has become a benchmark in the urban art landscape. Around 2000, artists from Taiwan, Slovenia, Poland, Brazil, Syria, Ethiopia, Germany or France, as well as from Spain, have passed through Canido. The name of the festival responds to one of its working guidelines: artists must be inspired by this famous painting of Velázquez for their works and recreate variations that will remain forever on the facades of the city. As the organisers say: "Las Meninas de Canido is a triumph of artistic talent as a vehicle of communication and a foothold for the solution of urban needs." Last year, besides, there was an enormous expectation when a work attributed to Banksy appeared in one of the murals, although the artist denied it. For the festival, this author is an undeniable reference, and in homage, they reserve each edition a unique space under the claim “Banksy, in Canido we have a wall reserved for you”. It may appear this year…

Cartel “(Fe)meninas de Canido 2019” (detalle) María Maquieira

PHOTOGRAPHY IN MADRID

The Fundación Telefónica Space organises the workshop “Son ciudad” by the photographer Consuelo Bautista. This course takes place from September 11th to 13th, from 5 pm to 8 pm and is aimed at experienced professional or amateur photographers. Hand in hand with the artist, participants will take a tour of urban photography and the power of communication that city images can have, also reviewing the work of other authors such as Wiliam Klein. After a more theoretical first session, it is time to put into practice the concepts worked and the vision of the attendees to develop a project around street photography and the creation of micro-stories with the characters of urban life.

PROYECTOR FESTIVAL

From September 11th to 22nd, Madrid opens its arms to video-creation to host the 12th edition of the PROYECTOR Festival. On this occasion, 14 spaces distributed throughout the city will host this large program for a video art immersion. The agenda incorporates visits to collections, curated cycles of projections, workshops, masterclasses, professional meetings, guided tours... There is no excuse to get to know this discipline that every year gains new followers. Contemporary video creation offers an immense field of exploration that attracts numerous artists, in addition to using a language adapted to the consumption habits of today's society. The power of the moving image and its use for the elaboration of a new contemporary discourse will surprise us with a program of activities designed for all audiences.

Lien Cheng Wang, “Reading Plan”

FESTIVAL OPEN HOUSE

In its 5th edition, the Architecture and City Festival will have the collaboration of more than 100 spaces that will open their doors to the public on the weekend of September 28th and 29th. It is the perfect occasion to get to know some hidden corners of buildings of enormous interest that remain habitually closed to the public. For lovers of architecture, design, interior design, art and history this is an unavoidable event. Last year, visits overpassed the records, and there were long waiting lists, so stay tuned for registration.

BOTIN CENTRE

On September 9th and 10th, the Botín Centre organises the second edition of its “Meeting on Science, Art and Creativity”. These sessions bring together professionals from different branches of knowledge to discuss the similarities that exist in creative artistic processes and scientists. In this way, the similarities between the two spheres can be noticed, and the influence that art and science have on each other can be observed. Concepts such as the golden ratio, art and fractal mathematics, the aesthetics of structures subject to tensegrity or the fascinating reaction of the brain to art and music will be discussed. As Pedro García Barreno, director of the meeting explains, “the speakers will present how artistic beauty has penetrated the scientific theories and the design of the machines, while the artists have incorporated scientific ideas and technological advances in their creative processes".

ALCALÁ 31 SHOWROOM AND REINA SOFÍA MUSEUM

To accompany the exhibition that the Reina Sofía Museum dedicates to the Hispanic-Brazilian artist Sara Ramo, Sala Alcalá 31 organises a parallel exhibition that opens on September 12th under the title "The fall and other forms of life". This exhibition focuses on a site-specific project created by the author for the room and revolves around the idea of ​​simulation and appearance. For its part, the Reina Sofía Museum collects a part of her most extensive work, with pieces of video, installation, sculpture and collage. Sara Ramo always considers the position of the individual in their context and the maintenance of the established standards. This permanent questioning of the status quo soaks its pieces and seeks to open an internal dialogue with the viewer. In the exhibition "lindalocaviejabruja" Ramo works the role of women in our society and explores their domestic or daily context with works that feed on numerous references, even to incorporate absurd objects that produce a disconcerting effect.

In the year 2020 in the heart of Barcelona a wandering gallery was born, the same one that in February 2021 would debut at Art Madrid with an exhibition proposal focused on contemporary portraits; with this subject matter it would manage to create a powerful dialogue between artwork and audience and make the seal Inéditad remain in the history of the event that contained it.

Jean Carlos Puerto. Protección. Oil and copper leaf on wood. 60 x 48. 2021. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Since that first time and until today, the wandering gallery has managed to build projects on otherness, has repositioned in the spotlight the discourses on the LGTBIQ+ collective, has consolidated a group of artists who share its principles of resilience and empathy and the best thing is that it continues to bet from the professionalism and commitment to give voice to the difference.

Claudio Petit-Laurent.. El Joven de la Perla. Oil on wood. 30 x 30 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Inéditad Gallery, thanks to its founder Luis López, its collaborators and the infinite possibilities manifested in the works of the artists it represents, is a gallery that has demonstrated its capacity and courage to stimulate the sensibility of the public through art and seduce a generation that moves between the glass window and the analogical story. Inéditad is a nomadic gallery that has gathered around it a community of artists and has moved the context with exhibition projects that think about LGTBIQ+ art without prejudices.

Pepa Salas Vilar. Las marcas del arcoiris. Oil on canvas. 40 x 50 cm. 2022. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Pride and Prejudice was inaugurated. An exhibition that brings together the works of sixteen artists: Abel Carrillo, Alex Domènech, Carlos Enfedaque, Silvia Flechoso, Jamalajama, Daniel Jaén, Claudio Petit-Laurent, Jean Carlos Puerto, Fernando Romero, Pablo Rodríguez, Pepa Salas Vilar, Jack Smith, Pablo Sola, Bran Sólo, Elia Tomás and Utürüo. Painting, illustration, photography and digital art are the manifestations that bring into dialogue around fifty neatly threaded pieces, in a discursive line that discusses such a latent phenomenon as discrimination. To achieve this, the artists invited to the exhibition question themselves whether: Does discrimination exist within the LGTBIQ+ collective?

Pride and Prejudice Official Poster. Image courtesy of the gallery.

With approaches on and from the body, the proposal invites to celebrate diversity, proposes to question and self-question the prejudices and attitudes of society against the collective. Pride and Prejudice is a space for dialogue about the constructs imposed on us by society. It is also an oasis in which to deconstruct with tolerance and respect the subjectivities that sometimes prevent us from approaching the production of the participating artists, simply because "the beautiful" does not fit in an androgynous body. The subjugation of stereotypes are pressed with determination to find the beauty of diversity in other palpable facets of reality.

Pablo Sola. All men are dogs. Photography. 2014. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Throughout these three years Inéditad has stimulated the vindictive projection towards bad practices, has questioned estates around the LGTBIQ+ body and the most admirable thing, is that these capacities have resurfaced around the dialogue and the visual narrative of the stories that are told from the visual: Artworks that are people, art that is, per se, humanity. Overcome impositions and accept what is different in order to continue fighting against homophobia, biphobia, lesbophobia or transphobia and defend the equal rights that all the acronyms of the collective deserve in our community.

That's Pride and Prejudice: One creature, the happiest in the world. And maybe other projects and other people have said it - or felt it - before, but none so fairly.

Silvia Flechoso. Hola, soy maricón. Oil on canvas. 73 x 54 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

From June 8th until June 22nd you can visit Pride and Prejudice. Carrer de Palau núm. 4. Canal Gallery space. Barcelona.