When you don't want to face a definition, a label; when you like performance, live art and music; or video art, sound art and dance... To play with the words of the dictionary that refer to any aspect of contemporary creation, and you want to be a participant in that concept puzzle. For whom art is more than a contemplative action. With this sum of ingredients, La Caixa launched last year the "Night Found! Festival", an event in which all forms of artistic expression have a place and that seeks to offer a space for the most emerging, most groundbreaking productions in today's contemporary scene, both national and international.

Image of “Walking Out”, 2011 (via bernatdaviu.com)

Although the initiative has a stable programming part, most of the activities concentrate on an intense day designed to awaken the most restless senses and open up the future of art. On November 16th, CaixaForum Madrid will open the scene to different artistic disciplines, offering the viewer a wide range of possibilities. From video-art to electronic and experimental music, through illustration, performance, poetry and contemporary dance.

One of the highlights of the program is the performance of Violeta Gil and Abraham Boba in a literary-musical performance entitled "Before you throw away my things." Violeta's personal story comes at a time of vital transition, when, after living for a while in the United States, she returned to Spain after the worst years of the crisis. The result of this experience is this poem-book, which will be recited with the live music of Abraham Boba, a renowned sound artist.

Imageof the artwork by María Arnal and Ilan Manouach: “Shapereader Chorale”

We must also highlight the appointment "E gira tutto intorno alla stanza", a performance starring Bernat Daviu and a group of dancers choreographed by Mar Aguiló. This proposal rescues a recently extended practice in some avant-garde cities in which young people dance spontaneously in public spaces. On this occasion, the dance will take place in tune with the pieces exhibited in the room, in a dialogue generated in the context of the exhibition “The painting. A permanent challenge ”, with works by Spaletti, Ryman or Ángela de la Cruz. As Daviu explains, the purpose is to generate several layers of discourse, one over the other, although they do not always have a unique meaning and can be discordant.

Besides, you can enjoy "Shapereader Chorale", a performative action by María Arnal and Ilan Manouach. This meeting is articulated as an experimental workshop to inquire about musical composition, tactile exploration and vocal interpretation so that participants can collectively create a unique musical piece.

In addition, there is also room for the little ones with the performance of Spaghetti Monster (Anastasia Bengoechea). This graphic and creative humorist will share with the public her creative process with hints of humour and lots of energy.

After their appointment at CaixaForum Barcelona, last October, the Night Found arrives at the Madrid headquarters on November 16th. Get ready!

The CEART opens this Thursday, November 14th in the room A an exhibition dedicated to this master of photography, which will be open to the public until February 9th. The show includes one of the artist's latest projects, focused on the hard work carried out by the miners of Serra Pelada, an open gold mine in the heart of Brazil where employees daily risked their lives.

Immigration, poverty, marginal life, slave labour, man's relationship with the land, the use of natural resources... are issues that have always fascinated Salgado. From the beginning of his career as a photographer, his work has opted to give visibility to the most disadvantaged groups and to create with his images a vivid and impressive visual story without fakes. With a raw black and white, this author's work transits between photo-reportage and naturalistic photography.

And the idea that permeates all his work is human dignity. Salgado portrays employees, miners and gatherers from a purely humanistic approach that wants to value their integrity, their strength and their resilience.

“If you photograph a human, so that he is not represented in a noble way, there is no reason to take the picture. That is my way of seeing things.”

Salgado entered this discipline long after completing his studies in economics between Brazil and the United States, and a doctorate in statistics in France. But in 1973 his life took a turn, and he decided to start his career as a photographer. He achieved to work at the Gamma Agency and Magnum Photos for more than 15 years until in 1994 he founded his own agency “Amazonas Imagen”.

With the “Gold” project, the photographer portrays a harsh reality that takes place in the Serra Pelada mine, a name given to a totally devastated and anarchically excavated mining enclave, the world's largest open-pit gold mine, through which more than 50,000 people have passed. In the heat of the legends about the mysterious “El Dorado”, the enthusiasm for this precious metal led to the development of strenuous exploitation practices for the workers and to originate tales of grief and glory, of human victory and defeat between the soil, the tunnels and the cargo baskets.

The CEART exhibition brings together Salgado's full portfolio in his characteristical black and white and large-format photographs that leave no one indifferent.