Art Madrid'23 – Re-discovering the Architecture in the Capital

Façade-view of the Instituto Eduardo Torroja, built in 1953.

 

 

This Friday 29th of September the 14th Edition of “Week of the Architecture” starts and the COAM has programmed, due to the birth centenary of the activist Jane Jacobs, the projection of “Citizen Jane, The Battle for the City”. This film-documentary, directed by Matt Tyrnauer, tells the story of this urbanist from New York that achieved to mobilise crowds of people so as to stop an aberrant construction plan. The project foresaw the demolition of various buildings of lower Manhattan in order to layout a net of roads of eight lanes and to invade the city with tonnes of asphalt. The film arrives now to Spain after its recent first release in the US.

 

 

SGAE headquarters. Longoria Palace, built in 1904.

 

 

This real-fact case is just an example of the impact that urban decisions might cause into the preservation of the architectural heritage, one of the essential aspects to define the aesthetics of a city and to confer identity. The COAM’s program also counts this year on an invited city: Paris. the “Paris-Madrid Tandem 2017” aspires to go deeper into the architectural richness of these two cities and their urban transformation through culture. The proposal counted on the collaboration of both city councils, the embassies of France and Spain, the Institut Française and the Instituto Cervantes, and it offers a series of activities that will take place simultaneously in Madrid and Paris, besides the exhibitions “Réinventer Paris” and “Co-urbanismo” that will open in the Institut Française and L’Alliance Française of Madrid.

 

 

Paris-Madrid Tandem 2017.

 

 

One of the ways to appreciate this importance is by knowing our architecture by oneself, inside and outside. That’s why one of the most interesting proposals is the possibility of visiting the inner side of buildings that usually remain closed to the public. The Open House Festival and the COAM offer access to some of these reserved places like The Lira Palace, the Banco de España, Metrópolis or the Racecourse of Zarzuela. The catalogue overpasses one hundred of buildings and will certainly have a high demand, so you should be fast to register ahead. Last year, there were more than 40.000 visitors and many people couldn’t get access because tours were sold out.

 

 

Old underground station of Chamberí, 1919.

 

 

To close the program, in late October, the proposal “Madrid, otra mirada” (Madrid, another look) includes a series of concerts, visits, lectures and exhibitions to give a larger dissemination of the urban and monumental heritage of the capital. The city council has counted on the collaboration of 107 institutions that will open their doors for the visitors to approach the historic and monumental buildings with “another look”.

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.