RAÍCES AFUERA. PERFORMANCE CYCLE X ART MADRID'25

Art Madrid celebrates twenty years of contemporary art from March 5 to 9, 2025, at the Galería de Cristal of the Palacio de Cibeles. During Art Week, it becomes an exhibition platform for national and international galleries and artists. In this edition, with the aim of providing a space for artists working in the realm of performance art, the fair presents Raíces Afuera, a performance cycle that explores notions of belonging and the need for rootedness in a contemporary world marked by fragmentation, displacement, and disconnection. Positioned within the fair as a critical and reflective space, the project challenges the individual’s relationship with their environment, community, and sense of identity.

PERFORMANCE: ESE ENTORNO ENDURECE MI PIEL. BY RA ASENSI

March 8 | 19:00h. Galería de Cristal of the Palacio de Cibeles.

Asfáltica Ciudad. Ra Asensi. Photograpy Irene Zottola.

Ese entorno endurece mi piel is a performance that takes place through sculptural pieces made of oxidized corten steel and seawater. These bodily extensions function as second skins. They are activated through touch, generating sounds. Together, they form a kind of poetic cartography. These pieces have been created from the imprints of various watery bodies, and through this process, they transform into maps of water.

"Life began in the sea, and our bodies have been engaged in various narratives about this origin story ever since. I am not interested in narratives that place 'the family' in its traditional role, but the ones about kinship in all its wonderful queer forms are still something I seek. That is the difficulty: to embrace queer narratives as a territory of connection and responsibility without reinstalling the old myths of dark continents, woman as matrix, and other power games of familial bonds." Astrida Neimanis

Ra Asensi. Performance documentation.

ABOUT RA ASENSI

Ra Asensi (Bilbao, 1989) creates artifacts as ways of (ex)tending the material limits of the body. This production is influenced by ceramics and its processes, performance art, photography, and sculpture.

Notable solo exhibitions include Objeto Inquieto at Fundación Bilbaoarte Fundazioa, Inadaptada Resistencia at Centro Cultural Montehermoso, and La lava que llevas contigo at TACA (Palma de Mallorca).

Ra Asensi’s work focuses on the creation of artifacts as a means to expand the material boundaries of the body and initiate collaborative processes. Their production is influenced by ceramics and its techniques, performance art, photography, and sculpture. Through their practice, they explore the relationships between body(s), technology(s), and nature(s), investigating how these elements interact and transform in different contexts.

Their works, interventions, and actions take place in various environments: Galería Fran Reus, 2024 (Palma de Mallorca); Art House Foundation Studio D, 2024 (London); 019-Ghent, 2024 (Ghent); Tabakalera, 2024 (Donosti); Colonia Industrial Cal Rosal, 2024 (Berga, Catalunya); Festival Mercurio/Instituto Cervantes, 2023 (Palermo); ECOS, 2023 (Sala Rekalde, Bilbao); BAP, 2022 (Guggenheim Museum Bilbao).

At the most recent edition of Art Madrid, artist Luis Olaso (Bilbao, 1986), represented by Kur Art Gallery (San Sebastián), received the Residency Prize of the Art Madrid Patronage Program. This award, the result of a collaboration between Art Madrid, DOM Art Residence, and the Italian association ExtrArtis, enabled him to undertake an artistic residency in Sorrento (Italy) in August 2025.

Through initiatives like this, the fair reaffirms its support for contemporary creation—a commitment aimed at increasing artists’ visibility and strengthening art collecting through concrete actions such as acquisition prizes, recognition of emerging talents, and international residencies.

Artists in Residence. DOM & ExtrArtis. Image courtesy of Agata D’Esposito.

The DOM & ExtrArtis 2025 Residency Program took place in Sorrento from August 1 to 31, 2025. The artists lived together at Relais La Rupe, a 16th-century villa surrounded by cliffs and centuries-old gardens, which became an ideal setting for experimentation and exchange.

In this edition, residents worked around the theme “Reimagining Genius Loci”, an invitation to reflect on how the movement of people and traditions transforms the “spirit of place.” During the residency, DOM organized two public group exhibitions: the first to present the artists’ previous work, and the second to showcase the projects developed in Sorrento.

Work by Luis Olaso. DOM & ExtrArtis. Image courtesy of Agata D’Esposito.

Luis Olaso’s work moves between expressionist figuration and abstraction, always employing a pictorial language charged with strength and emotion. Initially self-taught, he later graduated in Fine Arts and has developed a solid international career, with exhibitions at venues including JD Malat (London) and Makasiini Contemporary (Turku, Finland), and participation in fairs such as Untitled Miami, Estampa, and Art Madrid itself.

His work is part of prestigious collections, including the Tokyo Contemporary Art Foundation, Fundación SIMCO, and the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, and has been recognized in competitions such as the Reina Sofía Prize for Painting and Sculpture and the Ibercaja Young Painting Prize.

In Sorrento, Olaso found a unique context to expand his pictorial research, engaging in dialogue with the Mediterranean landscape and the region’s historical heritage. The residency provided him with time, resources, and a framework for exchange with other international artists, fostering the production of new works that were later presented in the group exhibitions organized by DOM.

Luis Olaso working on his project. DOM & ExtrArtis. Image courtesy of DOM.

Luis Olaso’s experience at DOM Art Residence concluded with a public showcase of the works produced, reinforcing his presence on the international circuit and consolidating his position as one of the most prominent Basque artists on the contemporary scene.

Through initiatives such as this, Art Madrid demonstrates its active role as a platform for direct support of contemporary creation, creating opportunities for research, production, and intercultural dialogue that extend beyond the fair itself and accompany artists in their professional development.