Tomorrow, Wednesday 12th February, the programme of activities developed by Art Madrid and the video art platform PROYECTOR starts. Under the curatorship of Mario Gutiérrez Cru and with the collaboration of the spaces MediaLab Prado and Sala Alcalá 31 the program is dedicated to video art, action art and new media.

The convergence between technology and art generates new languages and forms of artistic expression. From Art Madrid we want to bring the public closer to these disciplines by generating a direct dialogue with the creators where there are no intermediaries. Our commitment and one of the fundamental pillars of this programme are the practical and immersive activities in creation through master classes, meetings and presentations or a visit to an artist's studio.

To start this programme, the artist Patxi Araújo will give a master class tomorrow, Wednesday 12 February at 5:30 pm in the MediaLab Prado auditorium, where the following master classes by Olga Diego and Lois Patiño will also take place.

Under the title "All Prophets are Wrong" they will share their creative experience, the paths explored in communication and their productive processes incorporating technology without losing the burden of discourse.

Patxi Araújo develops his work in the territory of the poetics of new media. His work has been recognized and selected in different biennials, festivals and competitions of video art and electronic experimentation. A reflection that goes beyond aesthetics, and that runs between the digital and the human, between nature and artificial life. Places where the limits are diffuse, spaces where the public can delve together with the artist to know and understand the metaphoric of Patxi Araújo's work.

Later, at 8.30pm and as an opening, the interactive art work Sherezade will be shown for the first time. A site-specific creation by Patxi Araújo for the facade of MediaLab Prado. The art work is based on play. It is a random generation of sentences and phrases according to the position of the spectator in the front square of the facade. Just as automatic poetry emerges from the poet's entrails or from any other of his organs that have stored reserves, "Sherezade" elaborates literary proposals in the form of titles or epigraphs from a bank of words chosen by the author and stored in a virtual memory in random mode. The movement, presence or absence of people, animals or things in the square of MediaLab Prado determines that the program chooses among those words, and generates lapidary, poetic, absurd or sublime phrases. Therefore, if some kind of literary causality exists, it should be sought in the mixture of the activity in the square and the random mode which the words in the program emerge. Sherezade's memory today mixes 24 prepositions, 31 articles, 926 adjectives and 726 names of the Spanish language conjugated in the masculine singular.

The role of the public in this installation will be crucial to seeing it in operation. "Sherezade" will be available from sunset every day until mid-March.

On Thursday at 5:30pm we continue the programme with a master class by Olga Diego. An artist who combines scientific knowledge and art to create an installation area loaded with symbolism. Olga reflects on when the creative process becomes an art work in itself through all the material left behind in the testimonial process. The artist invites us to learn about the process and invention of the art work, how it works and will make a small exhibition when she puts some of these pieces into action. A space that aims to be a unique experience.

Olga Diego preparando "El jardín autómata", foto: Carolina Diego

To finish this cycle of master classes, the artist Lois Patiño proposes on Friday 14 at 5:30 pm an encounter in which he will trace different paths in his art works to discuss this intermediate space between contemporary art and cinema, the frontiers that separate them and that Lois proposes to dilute. Art Works that take the form of video installations, experimental fictions, video art pieces or creative documentaries. The still image and the moving image, visual abstraction and the impact of the new formats that transit in places where perhaps these frontiers should disappear.

Lois Patiño, fotograma de "Sol Rojo"

In order to obtain close knowledge and bring the public closer to a more detailed understanding of contemporary art, the opinion of professional experts in the field could not be lacking. On Thursday February 20 at 6:00 pm we will hold a round table in the collaborative space Sala Alcalá 31. Moderated by sound artist and composer Miguel Álvarez-Fernández, we will have Rafael Doctor, independent curator and cultural manager, Karin Ohlenschläger, critic, curator and director of activities of LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, and Berta Sichel, cultural agent and curator director of Bureauphi Art Agency. The table will debate the evolution of the still image, passing through video art to the new media and will reflect on the current impact it has on creators and the society that enjoys and consumes it.

Converging in all the objectives of Art Madrid-Proyector'20 we have the visit to Eduardo Balanza's studio on February 22nd at 12:00 pm. This activity presents us with the possibility of getting to know the artist's workspace, understanding his creative process and understanding the application and techniques used to finally enjoy a small performance in this intimate space. Eduardo Balanza will show the audience how the "B71" works, an electro-acoustic instrument inspired by baroque organs with a manual and automatic system of operation activated by vibrating speakers on plates capable of connecting to weather data websites.

To visit Eduardo's workshop it is essential to register beforehand using the form

Eduardo Balanza, "B71"

All programming is open and free to the public, thus generating the opportunity to attend a diverse audience where the only requirement is the ability to be amazed and the willingness to live unique experiences in the art world.

The circle as critical device and the marker as contemporary catalyst

POSCA, the Japanese brand of water-based paint markers, has established itself since the 1980s as a central instrument within contemporary artistic practices associated with urban art, illustration, graphic design, and interdisciplinary experimentation. Its opaque, highly pigmented, fast-drying formula—compatible with surfaces as diverse as paper, wood, metal, glass, and textiles—has enabled a technical expansion that extends beyond the traditional studio, engaging public space, objects, and installation practices alike.

In this context, POSCA operates as more than a working tool; it functions as a material infrastructure for contemporary creation. It is a technical device that enables immediacy of gesture without sacrificing chromatic density or formal precision. Its versatility has contributed to the democratization of languages historically associated with painting, fostering a more horizontal circulation between professional and amateur practices.

This expanded dimension of the medium finds a particularly compelling conceptual framework in The Rolling Collection, a traveling exhibition curated by ADDA Gallery. The project proposes a collective investigation of the circular format, understood not merely as a formal container but as a symbolic structure and a field of spatial tension.

Historically, the circle has operated as a figure of totality, continuity, and return. Within the framework of The Rolling Collection, the circular format shifts away from its classical symbolic charge toward an experimental dimension, becoming a support that challenges the hegemonic rectangular frontality of the Western pictorial tradition. The absence of angles demands a reconsideration of composition, balance, and directional flow.

Rather than functioning as a simple formal constraint, this condition generates a specific economy of visual decisions. The curved edge intensifies the relationship between center and periphery, dissolves internal hierarchies, and activates both centrifugal and centripetal dynamics. The resulting body of work interrogates the very processes through which images are constructed.

Following its 2025 tour through Barcelona, Ibiza, Paris, London, and Tokyo, a selection of the exhibition is presented at Art Madrid, reinforcing its international scope and its adaptability to diverse cultural contexts. The proposal for Art Madrid’26 brings together artists whose practices unfold at the intersection of urban art, contemporary illustration, and hybrid methodologies: Honet, Yu Maeda, Nicolas Villamizar, Fafi, Yoshi, and Cachetejack.

While their visual languages vary—ranging from graphic and narrative approaches to chromatic explorations charged with gestural intensity—the curatorial framework establishes a shared axis: a free, experimental, and distinctly color-driven attitude. In this sense, color functions as a conceptual structure that articulates the works while simultaneously connecting them to the specific materiality of POSCA.

The marker’s inherent chromatic vibrancy engages in dialogue with the formal assertiveness of the circle, generating surfaces in which saturation and contrast take center stage. The tool thus becomes embedded within the exhibition discourse, operating as a coherent extension of the participating artists’ aesthetic vocabularies.

One of the project’s most significant dimensions is the active incorporation of the public. Within the exhibition space—activated by POSCA during Art Madrid’26—visitors will be invited to intervene on circular supports installed on the wall using POSCA markers, thereby symbolically integrating themselves into The Rolling Collection during its presentation in Madrid.

This strategy introduces a relational dimension that destabilizes the notion of the closed artwork. Authorship becomes decentralized, and the exhibition space transforms into a dynamic surface for the accumulation of gestures. From a theoretical standpoint, the project may be understood as aligning with participatory practices that, without compromising formal coherence, open the artistic dispositif to contingency and multiplicity.

The selection of POSCA as the instrument for this collective intervention is deliberate. Its ease of use, line control, and compatibility with multiple surfaces ensure an accessible experience without diminishing the visual potency of the outcome. In this way, the marker operates as a mediator between professional practice and spontaneous experimentation, dissolving technical hierarchies.

The title itself, The Rolling Collection, suggests a collection in motion—unfixed to a single space or definitive configuration. Its itinerant nature, combined with the incorporation of local interventions, transforms the project into an organism in continuous evolution. Within this framework, POSCA positions itself as a material catalyst for a transnational creative community. Long associated with urban scenes and emerging practices, the brand reinforces its identity as an ally of open, experimental, and collaborative processes.

POSCA x The Rolling Collection should not be understood merely as a collaboration between a company and a curatorial initiative; rather, it constitutes a strategic convergence of tool, discourse, and community. The project proposes a reflection on format, the global circulation of contemporary art, and the expansion of authorship, while POSCA provides the technical infrastructure that makes both individual works and collective experience possible.