LECTURAS CURATED WALKTHROUGHS X ART MADRID'25

Art Madrid'25 presents Lecturas. Curated Walkthroughs X Art Madrid'25, a cultural mediation initiative aimed at bringing the public closer to the artworks displayed at the fair. Through guided tours led by art historians and cultural communicators Eugenia Tenenbaum and Clara González Freyre de Andrade, different perspectives on contemporary creation and its relevance in today's society will be explored. Each thematic tour will include a selection of ten works, with a curatorial discourse that will facilitate the understanding and appreciation of contemporary art beyond mere contemplation.

These guided visits will allow attendees to interact directly with the curators, enriching their connection with the pieces and the artists' visions. With this second edition, Lecturas reinforces Art Madrid's commitment to the dissemination and understanding of contemporary art, offering an immersive experience that expands reception channels and attracts new audiences.

Each thematic tour will include a selection of ten works, accompanied by a curatorial discourse that will facilitate the understanding and appreciation of contemporary art beyond mere contemplation. These guided visits will allow attendees to interact directly with the curators, enriching their connection with the artworks and the artists' vision.

With this second edition, Lecturas: Curated Walkthroughs X Art Madrid'25 strengthens Art Madrid's commitment to the dissemination and understanding of contemporary art, offering an immersive experience that expands reception channels and attracts new audiences.

CENTER AND PERIPHERY: TENSIONS AND DIALOGUES IN CONTEMPORARY ART. CURATED WALKTHROUGHS BY EUGENIA TENENBAUM.

If language often operates through binomials that lose both strength and meaning when isolated from their context and semantic counterparts, so does thought. To what extent are we aware of the notions of “center” and “periphery” when approaching artistic discourses and cultural trends? Can we subvert the canonical by prioritizing and privileging everything that has been expelled from the center, without falling into the same hierarchies we aim to avoid? Are the discussions about center and periphery, about what is considered “own” and what is understood as “other,” already exhausted? Through this tour, Eugenia Tenenbaum explores alternative ways to engage in a conversation about contemporary art, with the aim of reconsidering cultural signifiers in search of new meanings, constructing new paths for analysis and interpretation of cultural environments, and proposing a new mental urbanism tailored to the tensions between these two concepts.

SELECTION OF ARTISTS AND GALLERIES:

Brenda Cabrera — Collage Habana. Francisco Mayor Maestre — Galería Aurora Vigil-Escalera. Mico Rabuñal — Galería Aurora Vigil-Escalera. Tadanori Yamaguchi — Galería Aurora Vigil-Escalera. Idoia Cuesta — Galería Arancha Osoro. Mária Svarbová — Galería Bat Alberto Cornejo. Jan Schüler — 3 Punts Galería. Samuel Salcedo — 3 Punts Galería. Francesca Poza — Alba Cabrera Gallery. Marta Sánchez Luengo — Galería María Aguilar. Sun Pei-Mao — Yiri Arts. Tiffany Alfonseca — Galería OOA. Miska Mohammed — Galería OOA. Núria Torres — Inéditad Gallery.

ABOUT EUGENIA TENENBAUM

Art historian specialized in gender perspective, Eugenia Tenenbaum is dedicated to cultural dissemination and art criticism on social media, primarily Instagram and Patreon. As a communicator, she also works by giving guided tours, lectures, and workshops on art, feminism, and the impact of gender relations on the creation, reception, and dissemination of artistic production at conferences, universities, schools, museums, and other spaces. In 2022, she published her first book, La mirada inquieta, an essay on art, and in April 2023, her first work of fiction, Las mujeres detrás de Picasso.

Eugenia Tenenbaum. Image courtesy of the curator.

FROM THE MARGINS. TOWARD THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW ART HISTORY. CURATED WALKTHROUGHS BY CLARA GONZÁLEZ FREYRE DE ANDRADE

Art history is also the history of its absences. For centuries, the official artistic narrative was built upon a canon that determined which artists, styles, and discourses deserved to be remembered. In this way, women, racialized individuals, and artists whose creative concepts challenged this discourse were systematically excluded from the official narrative. Their art, however, never ceased to exist on the margins.

Today, those voices no longer only inhabit the edges but claim the spaces they should have historically occupied. This tour proposes to explore those who, from this historical periphery – whether geographical, social, and/or conceptual – redefine traditional artistic creation, looking toward the future. A tour made up of works that question the boundaries between the political and the aesthetic, addressing issues such as gender, identity, and memory. Beyond being “beautiful” (an adjective historically linked to art), the selected works are presented as tools for change, capable of opening dialogues, challenging preconceived notions, and proposing alternative ways of inhabiting the world.

SELECTION OF ARTISTS AND GALLERIES:

Albert Bonet — Inéditad Gallery. Veljko Vučković — Aria Art Gallery. Tiffany Alfonseca — OOA Gallery. Khalid El Bekai — Galería Espiral. Brenda Cabrera — Collage Habana. Lara Padilla — 3 Punts Galería. Katharina Arndt — Ting Ting Art Space. Antonio Ovejero — CLC Arte. Gemma Alpuente — Canal Gallery. Carolina Bazo — O Art Project.

ABOUT CLARA GONZÁLEZ FREYRE DE ANDRADE

Clara González Freyre de Andrade is an art historian with a master's degree in Criticism and Cultural Communication. Better known as Claramore, she is currently dedicated to cultural dissemination, gaining recognition for her presence on social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Through her work, she aims to contribute to the democratization of art and the construction of a more inclusive discipline, giving visibility to historically oppressed groups and applying a gender perspective to her outreach. In this regard, she has published her first book, Un Van Gogh en el salón (Temas de hoy, 2024), which approaches the history of art in an engaging and approachable way, yet with a critical edge that invites reflection. Additionally, she has collaborated with media outlets such as El Grito (El Confidencial), El Orden Mundial, Muy Historia, and Yorokobu, offers museum tours, and regularly participates in conferences at various institutions.

Clara González Freyre de Andrade. Image courtesy of the curator.

From July 7 to 9, 2025, the Balsera Palace will host the First Course on Collecting and Contemporary Art, an intensive 15-hour program that will explore the complex and fundamental question of taste in contemporary art. Organized by the Nebrija Institute of Arts and Humanities at Nebrija University and the Avilés City Council, in collaboration with 9915 — Association of Private Collectors of Contemporary Art and the Institute of Contemporary Art, the course offers a unique opportunity for analysis and debate on the dynamics that shape aesthetic and symbolic value in today’s art scene.

First Course on Collecting and Contemporary Art. Avilés, Asturias

The notion of taste, intrinsically tied to aesthetic judgments and power relations, has played a decisive role in the historical prominence of artists and artworks. However, contemporary art—marked by its breaking of conventions, diversity of media and techniques, and critical stance toward traditional canons—raises fundamental questions about the continued relevance of this concept.

This course will explore how the decisions made by key players in the art system—institutions, private collections, galleries, curators, and artists—continually redefine a field of taste shaped by aesthetic, symbolic, cultural, social, and political logics.

"¿But does it exist, and what is the prevailing taste of our time—so seemingly confused, fragmented, indecipherable?" - Omar Calabrese, The Neo-Baroque Era.

The academic program, directed by José Luis Guijarro Alonso, Director of the Master’s in Art Market and Related Business Management at Nebrija University, and Pablo Álvarez de Toledo, Head of the Department of Arts at Nebrija University and the Nebrija Institute of Arts and Humanities, will bring together a distinguished group of national experts—including collectors, critics, curators, gallery owners, and artists—whose contributions will address key issues in shaping aesthetic, symbolic, and market value in today’s art world.

PROGRAM

MONDAY, JULY 7

9:30 AM Registration.

10:00 AM Course Opening Nebrija University Avilés City Council Presented by Rosario López Meras – President of the Association of Contemporary Art Collectors, 9915, and Adrián Piera – President of the ICA, Institute of Contemporary Art.

10:30 AM Course Presentation By José Luis Guijarro Alonso – Art Historian and Anthropologist, Researcher, and Director of the Master’s in Art Market and Related Business Management at Nebrija University.

11:00 AM Coffee Break.

11:30 AM Panel Discussion The Taste of Private Collecting as a Prelude to History. Speakers: Candela Álvarez Soldevilla – Entrepreneur and Collector; Javier Quilis – INELCOM Collection; José Miguel Vegas Valle – Collector. Moderator: Luis Feás – Critic and Curator.

1:00 PM Lunch Break.

3:30 PM Individual Lecture On Good Taste in Contemporary Art. Speaker: Marisol Salanova – Curator and Art Critic, Director of Arteinformado.

4:45 PM Panel Discussion The Influence of Galleries in Shaping Contemporary Taste. Speakers: Elba Benítez – Gallerist; Ricardo Pernas – Gallerist (Arniches 26); Aurora Vigil-Escalera – Gallerist. Moderator: Rafael Martín – Coleccion@casamer.

6:00 PM End of Day.

6:30 PM Activity and Cocktail Visit to the Exhibition Asturian Artists in the Pérez Simón Collection – Avilés.

TUESDAY, JULY 8

10:00 AM Individual Lecture Contemporary (Bad) Taste: Kitsch, Camp, and Tacky. Speaker: Julio Pérez Manzanares – Autonomous University of Madrid.

11:00 AM Coffee Break.

11:30 AM Panel Discussion Institutions and the Formation of Contemporary Taste. Speakers: Virginia López – Artist, Founder of PACA_Proyectos Artísticos Casa Antonino; Julieta de Haro – Artistic Director of CentroCentro; Carlos Urroz – Director of Institutional Relations, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. Moderator: Laura Gutiérrez – Director, School of Art of Oviedo.

1:00 PM Lunch Break.

3:30 PM Panel Discussion Beyond the Eye: The Taste for Ethical, Ecological, Social, or Political Concerns in Contemporary Art. Speakers: Semíramis González – Independent Curator; Eugenio Ampudia – Artist; Claudia Rodríguez-Ponga – Independent Curator. Moderator: Bárbara Mur Borrás – PhD in Fine Arts.

5:00 PM End of Day.

5:30 PM Activity Visit to the Studiolo Exhibition – Candela Álvarez Soldevilla Collection.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 9

9:30 AM Meeting with Asturian Artists Speakers: María Castellanos – Artist; Avelino Sala – Artist; Consuelo Vallina – Artist. Moderator: Pablo Álvarez de Toledo – Nebrija University.

11:00 AM Activity Visit to the Niemeyer Center – Avilés.

Course Closing Ceremony.

This course is designed for art professionals, collectors, researchers, and students seeking an in-depth analysis of the dynamics that shape taste and collecting practices in contemporary art. Adopting a critical and multidisciplinary perspective, it provides a unique opportunity to rigorously examine the aesthetic, symbolic, and structural factors that underpin the legitimization of contemporary art.