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.

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.