MADRID ABIERTO, 2005: Transforming Madrid
Participating Artists
Gonzalo Sa�nz De Santamar�a, with the cooperation of Berta Orellana, Valla de Seguridad (Security Wall)
Madrid Abierto is a project within what is generically known as Public Art. In the words of its organizer, Ramon Parramon, its objective is to "stimulate creative work in determined places that relate that which is typical of the place and the time in which the creativity takes place. It is to stimulate and generate work processes which take place over time, to boost immersion in the place itself and to interact in a section of public space that has a bearing on the social environment. Madrid Abierto is a program based on this premise of influencing the public sphere and uses different public areas of the city of Madrid as its stage, proposing new formats and using existing channels or infrastructures which get the general public involved, both in the process and in the search for other people". Madrid Abierto insists on considering artistic activity as a form of stimulation, of interaction with other agents capable of contributing to the dynamics that take place in specific environments of social complexity. It essentially understands that apart from pointing out and showing, one can transform, participate and stimulate.
Espacio Móvil
Ángela Bonadies and Compañía de Caracas
"…When I think about something, I’m really thinking of something else. When I look at a landscape, I am not actually thinking about it. I am comparing it to other landscapes I have seen before."
Jean-Luc Godard
Referring to Godard’s quote that opens this project, our aim is to create a link between the city involved, Madrid, and the South American city of Caracas through a series of color photos placed at bus stops and on buses covering the routes on the Madrid Abierto axis. Espacio Móvil plays with the meanings of "circulation" and "mobility" in an urban sense, i.e. transport, and a media orientated meaning, i.e. the circulation of information, to create a visual paradox, a disguise, and to think about "the city" through the movement and presence of both.
Familias Encontradas (Found families)
(January 1st 1971 to March 17th)
Fernando Baena
By chance I found a carton box labeled: January 1st 1971 to March 17th. The box contained nearly 100 black and white photo negatives, which were apparently taken by an anonymous photographer. Amongst the images, there are photos of families in the typical pose used in those days for the official identity card of large families. That is how we used to pose in the final years of the dictatorship. Are there any similarities with us today? Below the normal publicity posters of the Circle of Fine Arts another five will be placed, each one with an image of one of these unknown families. To give context to the images, five electronic signs will display texts referring to that period of time.
Zona Vigilada
Henry Eric Hernández
With the collaboration of: Dull Janiell, film editor / Laura Orizaola, photographer)
With Zona Vigilada, I will create art interventions in places that I have named cultural ghettos–individual or group stages (spaces) built on a determined ideology, at a particular time and later transformed until they are forgotten or are overtaken by cultural decadence–to be understood as ideological, economical and social. Zona Vigilada reconsiders the counterpoint between two specific cultural spaces with the relentless view as a controlling event in our acts, be they private or public. This piece of work involves placing two video cameras with different angle movements, which will be handled by three different photographers who will constantly move it around areas of the Museo de las Esculturas and record some situations (B/W), previously edited, transmited on one side of the screen, thus reconstructing the place’s environment. Simultaneously, at fixed times, the documentary filmed in La Havana will be screened on the other side of the screen, thus showing the time counterpoint between both security (vigilance) systems.
Mirador Nómada
José Dávila
The idea of this proposal is that participation at the Casa de América is not a piece of work to be mainly observed, but to invest that relation and use the piece of work so that the city of Madrid can be observed from it and the events of its urban daily life can be contemplated. The aim is that of recognizing and using the façade of the Casa de América as a strategic place of great qualities to observe one of the most emblematic urban points of Madrid, as is the Plaza de Cibeles, the paseo de Recoletos and Alcalá street; from a height and visual points which are not usually very easily accessible. It proposes the temporary construction of (accessible and safe) scaffolding for use by the public in general who will be able to explore the different levels and areas of the structure.
The Passerby Museum
María Alós & Nicolás Dumit Estévez
The Passer-by Museum is a traveling institution that organizes temporary exhibitions in built up urban areas. The museum’s collection comprises objects donated by those who visit it, or by people who work or live in the area in which the museum is set up at any particular time. The aim of the institution is to preserve the physical presence of the pedestrians in a certain location through a collection that constantly comes together and grows as the donators bring a personal belonging to add to it. The museum, as such, materializes into a museum during the assembly of the acquired objects. It is free to donate objects, and the donated articles are collected, listed on an inventory, packed and then put on exhibition. These transactions (donations) take place on the street where the museum is situated, thus taking advantage of the constant traffic of pedestrians who are going from one part of the city to another. The personnel of this institution is made up of artists who present themselves to the public, dressed in navy blue suits and white shirts, acting out the roles of curators, museum guards, museologists and technicians. Thus, the actual labor hierarchy of cultural organizations is on show.
Hanguendo y Colgando
Raimond Chaves
"Hanguendo y Colgando" is organized around a double proposal for Madrid Abierto based on the mediums on which it will be shown on the streets of the capital and also on the condition of a travelling artist who lives and works, travelling between South America, the Caribbean and Europe. "Hangueando" involves the publication of a new poster to be placed on billboards on the streets of Madrid with texts, statements and images considered to be relevant regarding events and processes which are taking place in South America and are hardly known of or totally unknown in Europe. Events that are local or confined to certain areas of South America because of globalization have consequences in Spain. "Colgando" involves the publication of between twenty and thirty different banderols based on my collection of images of South America with which I will elaborate a graphic story (no text) on a topic similar to the complimentary proposal but aimed at being read while moving (in vehicles driving along the Paseo de Recoletos). The sequence of images will work just like a flipbook, in which the animation works passing of the images. These images could illustrate an "event" during various moments, such as for example a bottle emptying or a volcano erupting (from banderol to banderol).
Valla de Seguridad (Security Wall)
Gonzalo Saénz De Santamaría
(With the cooperation of: Berta Orellana)
A module 10 metres high and 4 x 6 metres in width at base. Piece —identical module to those been used currently in the construction of a wall to divide Israel and Palestine.
Soy Madrid (I Am Madrid)
Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio
Everyone has strong feelings about the place they live but what seems exotic to the tourist can be commonplace or even dull to a local. However, tourism can invigorate the local economy. New interest at home for the same old landmarks can be sparked when viewed through the eyes of a visitor. World events and political differences can pale when compared to an important local issue such as "Which restaurant in the Paseo del Prado is the best?" From tips for tourists to diatribes on politics, Soy Madrid, will be a formal platform for a collaboration between Madrid residents and tourist artists Grennan and Sperandio. Through newspaper advertisements, word of mouth and a dedicated web site, soymadrid.com, artists Grennan and Sperandio will invite residents of to Madrid to tell their stories about Madrid. The artists will then present selected stories as bright and colorful comic strips written in Spanish and English.
Taxi Madrid
Anne Lorenz and Rebekka Reich
Taxi Madrid is a mobile public art intervention addressing issues of perception and the logic of memory. Equipped with mini-installations, 10 taxis will serve the main axis of Paseo de Recolletos / Paseo del Prado throughout the duration of Madrid Abierto, transporting their passengers into someone else’s mind and memories of Madrid, those of an ex-patriot. By interviewing former inhabitants of Madrid, who now live spread all over the world, we seek to find intriguing personal memories related to the city. From this material they will devise sound-collages to become part of more complex installations, consisting of objects and other memorabilia, fitted into the taxis.
