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: VOY RASPANDO LA HOJA Y LA VOZ. BY VALENTINA ALVARADO MATOS

March 7 | 19:00h. Galería de Cristal of the Palacio de Cibeles.

Propiedades de una esfera paralela. Double Projection 16mm. 2020. Valentina Alvarado Matos.

voy raspando la hoja y la voz is a piece that merges image, text, and sound to create a sensory and conceptual journey through the memory of the landscape. Here, the voice becomes a fragmented narrative, a thread weaving together personal memories while reflecting on how landscapes shift, transform, and reconfigure over time and space. The journey, far from being linear, unfolds as a passage between the tangible and the symbolic, blurring the boundaries between the physical place and the language that describes it. The work also explores how certain territories are represented, described, or distorted from different perspectives, questioning dominant narratives. The space being explored is not just a territory, a garden, a park, or a forest—it is also a linguistic construction, a space reimagined through language. The piece invites us to reconsider the borders between the physical and the symbolic, between the real and the narrated.

Notas y apariciones. Notebook. 2021/2024. Valentina Alvarado Matos.

ABOUT VALENTINA ALVARADO MATOS

Valentina Alvarado Matos (Maracaibo, Venezuela, 1986) is an artist who explores the moving image with a critical eye towards diaspora, landscape and gesture. Her work has been exhibited in important spaces such as Artium, LIAF Biennial, IFF Rotterdam, Punto de Vista, Ambulante, Loop, Cinemateca Madrid, among others. She has been a resident at Hangar, La Escocesa, Cultura. Resident, LIFT Toronto and Matadero.

In 2024 she presents his work in Barcelona with Carlos Vasquez Mendez in the other here at La Capella and full face at La Virreina Centro de la Imagen. In addition to her artistic practice, she has taught at institutions such as Massana, Eina, Universitat de Barcelona, La Universidad del Zulia, LAV, CC Albareda, EICTV in Cuba, among others. Her films are included in the catalogues of distributors such as Light Cone, XCèntric and Hamaca, and her work has been included in the book Remains-Tomorrow Themes in Contemporary Latin American Abstraction by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill.

Valentina Alvarado Matos works in a variety of media, with an emphasis on the tactile qualities of film, and focuses on the materiality and fragmentation of the image. She is interested in how materials leave traces of time and memory. Film and ceramics, the disciplines in which she works, require manual processes that take time and patience, such as manipulating spools, kneading clay, or cutting and splicing strips of film. These deliberate methods contrast with rapid production, and both craft and film are closely linked to tactile gestures and processes in their conceptual and formal approaches. Collage occupies a central place in his work, allowing him to superimpose fragments of images and materials to explore and deconstruct symbolic meanings, particularly around diasporic identity, landscape and belonging. Superimposition is not only a technique in her studio, but also a narrative method that establishes dialogues between the landscape and the body, the personal and the political, the macro and the micro.

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.