For another edition, Natalia Alonso Arduengo (Madrid, 1984) will be the curator in charge of carrying out the program, which will revolve around the theme of IDENTITY, taking as its starting point the verses of the poem Otherness by Mario Benedetti:

They always advised me to be someone else / and they even suggested that I had / notorious qualities to be someone else / that's why my future was in otherness the only problem has always been / my congenital stubbornness / I foolishly didn't want to be someone else / therefore I continued to be someone else same.

Otherness. Mario Benedetti.

The concept of identity will be analyzed in a contemporaneity marked by alienation, the uses of technologies and the keys of gender, class and race. How do we see ourselves? What image do we project? Who do we want to be? What social conventions impose a particular way of being in the world? Can we generate a new conception of the self?

Art Madrid'23 Curated Program will be dedicated to young artists as a platform for visibility during Madrid Art Week, an event par excellence for contemporary art at a national level. It is proposed as institutional support from the fair to allow four creators the possibility to show their projects in an event and commercial space such as an art fair. Will be articulated with an installation by the artist Dela Delos (Oviedo, 1992), an installation painting by Lorena Gutiérrez (Havana 1987) and two performances that will take place during the days of the fair; the performers are Agnes Essonti (Barcelona 1996) and Alexia Sayago (Madrid. 1995). Over the next few weeks, we will discover more in-depth the works and performances of these four creators.

On the other hand, to relate the program with the proposal of the participating galleries, it is proposed to continue with the curated tour. This tour starts from a selection of works from the stands of various exhibitors, forming an itinerary to follow under the curated speech of the edition. An itinerary from the concept of "identity" will guide us through the fair, reflecting on various issues: How do we see ourselves? Who do we want to be? What image do we project? What social conventions impose a particular way of being in the world? Is our identity as clear as we think, or is it constantly reformulated throughout our lives?

Artists and galleries on the tour: Raquel Algaba from the Arancha Osoro Gallery; Roger Sanguino of DDR Art Gallery; Federico Granell from the Metro Gallery; Jorge Hernández from the Aurora Vigil-Escalera Gallery; Carsten Brauer from the Uxval Gochez Gallery; Chamo San from the N2 Gallery; Dr.Robot Gallery's Costa Gorel; Oliver Okolo of OOA Gallery; Jordi Díaz Alamá from Inéditat Galería; and Xurxo Gómez-Chao from Moret Art.

The practice of the collective DIMASLA (Diana + Álvaro) is situated at a fertile intersection between contemporary art, ecological thinking, and a philosophy of experience that shifts the emphasis from production to attention. Faced with the visual and material acceleration of the present, their work does not propose a head-on opposition, but rather a sensitive reconciliation with time, understood as lived duration rather than as a measure. The work thus emerges as an exercise in slowing down, a pedagogy of perception where contemplating and listening become modes of knowledge.

In the work of DIMASLA (Diana + Álvaro), the territory does not function as a framework but rather as an agent. The landscape actively participates in the process, establishing a dialogical relationship reminiscent of certain eco-critical currents, in which subjectivity is decentralized and recognized as part of a broader framework. This openness implies an ethic of exposure, which is defined as the act of exposing oneself to the climate, the elements, and the unpredictable, and this means accepting vulnerability as an epistemological condition.

The materials—fabrics, pigments, and footprints—serve as surfaces for temporary inscriptions and memories, bearing the marks of time. The initial planning is conceived as an open hypothesis, allowing chance and error to act as productive forces. In this way, the artistic practice of DIMASLA (Diana + Álvaro) articulates a poetics of care and being-with, where creating is, above all, a profound way of feeling and understanding nature.

In a historical moment marked by speed and the overproduction of images, your work seems to champion slowness and listening as forms of resistance. Could it be said that your practice proposes a way of relearning time through aesthetic experience?

Diana: Yes, but more than resistance or vindication, I would speak of reconciliation—of love. It may appear slow, but it is deliberation; it is reflection. Filling time with contemplation or listening is a way of feeling. Aesthetic experience leads us along a path of reflection on what lies outside us and what lies within.

The territory does not appear in your work as a backdrop or a setting, but as an interlocutor. How do you negotiate that conversation between the artist’s will and the voice of the place, when the landscape itself participates in the creative process?

Álvaro: For us, the landscape is like a life partner or a close friend, and naturally this intimate relationship extends into our practice. We go to visit it, to be with it, to co-create together. We engage in a dialogue that goes beyond aesthetics—conversations filled with action, contemplation, understanding, and respect.

Ultimately, in a way, the landscape expresses itself through the material. We respect all the questions it poses, while at the same time valuing what unsettles us, what shapes us, and what stimulates us within this relationship.

The Conquest of the Rabbits I & II. 2021. Process.

In your approach, one senses an ethic of exposure: exposing oneself to the environment, to the weather, to others, to the unpredictable. To what extent is this vulnerability also a form of knowledge?

Diana: For us, this vulnerability teaches us a great deal—above all, humility. When we are out there and feel the cold, the rain, or the sun, we become aware of how small and insignificant we are in comparison to the grandeur and power of nature.

So yes, we understand vulnerability as a profound source of knowledge—one that helps us, among many other things, to let go of our ego and to understand that we are only a small part of a far more complex web.

Sometimes mountains cry too. 2021. Limestone rockfall, sun, rain, wind, pine resin on acrylic on natural cotton canvas, exposed on a blanket of esparto grass and limestone for two months.. 195 cm x 130 cm x 3 cm.

Your works often emerge from prolonged processes of exposure to the environment. Could it be said that the material—the fabrics, the pigments, the traces of the environment—acts as a memory that time writes on you as much as you write on it?

Álvaro: This is a topic for a long conversation, sitting on a rock—it would be very stimulating. But if experiences shape people’s inner lives and define who we are in the present moment, then I would say yes, especially in that sense.

Leaving our comfort zone has led us to learn from the perseverance of plants and the geological calm of mountains. Through this process, we have reconciled ourselves with time, with the environment, with nature, with ourselves, and even with our own practice. Just as fabrics hold the memory of a place, we have relearned how to pay attention and how to understand. Ultimately, it is a way of deepening our capacity to feel.

The fox and his tricks. 2022. Detail.

To what extent do you plan your work, and how much space do you leave for the unexpected—or even for mistakes?

Diana: Our planning is limited to an initial hypothesis. We choose the materials, colours, places, and sometimes even the specific location, but we leave as much room as possible for the unexpected to occur. In the end, that is what it is really about: allowing nature to speak and life to unfold. For us, both the unexpected and mistakes are part of the world’s complexity, and within that complexity we find a form of natural beauty.