As I mentioned in my previous blog post, my family recently came to visit me and shortly afterwards, so did four of my friends from back home! Consequently, I thought it would be worth showing on here some of the new art and cultural sites I visited with them. These are new places that I wanted to experience and learn about myself as well, to make sure I am still seeing new places and undergoing new things in Madrid – taking the advantage of them visiting to do so!
On Sunday the 3rd, we visited the beautiful Museo Sorolla, free of charge as it was a Sunday too! Not only does it have incredibly picturesque gardens, it also features a very vast and expansive collection of the work by artist: Joaquín Sorolla. The magnificent gardens/grounds and the buildings themselves were originally the artist’s house; which was apparently converted into a museum after the death of his widow. The artist’s works are utterly stunning, a mixture of: portraits and landscapes with historical and social themes; I also felt he had such an excellent way of representing light and the importance of it in his work. The visitor’s route takes you through the blossoming gardens, into the house and right through every room which is filled with his work and tools and out again. It’s definitely one of my favourite museums I’ve been to so far in Madrid!
Next, we moved onto visiting Parque El Capricho which is exclusively only open on weekends as it’s classed as an historical site. The park was also free to get into and was apparently made in 1784 by a Duchess and is dotted with a selection of supposedly botanical, sculptural and artistic treasures. The gardens are composed of three sections: the French garden, the English landscape and the Italian garden. It was very pretty and peaceful to walk around and I particularly liked admiring the historical columns and its statue which sits on top of a hill there.
On Tuesday the 5th March we visited the Matadero art exhibition site – another cost free one too. This place used to be a slaughterhouse, part of my interest in visiting it and therefore the grounds and buildings are rather large. The site now consists of multiple different art exhibition spaces, learning spaces and creative processes. Upon first walking into the place, it was quite breath-taking just how vast it is and the rooms definitely have an eerie feel knowing it’s a former slaughterhouse and the walls have an aesthetic which looks as though the buildings were previously burned. The first exhibition we came across was the Japanese artist: Meiro Koizumi’s work, part of Matadero’s visual programme: ‘Depth of Field’. The work is a collection of several videos playing on repeat in a large dark room with no light except what is coming from the videos. His work involves staging his characters and creating scripts to storytell through video; focusing on themes of war, power, duty, conflict and pushing people to their emotional limits – in turn, making his audience members feel uncomfortable whilst watching.
We then walked around a bit more and found another exhibition called ‘Amazonías’. This work was in a larger space, consisting of several rooms. This multi-media exhibit contained a collection of approximately one hundred different works by 46 Peruvian and Latin American artists from Latin America’s Lima Art Museum and other important private collections. The title of the exhibition according to the Matadero is: ‘intended to reflect the multiplicity of artistic views on this historically neglected geographical and social space which occupies a significant proportion of the territory of Peru.’ The exhibition was very large and impressive in terms of its wide ranges of work; I was especially intrigued by some of the photography and the large photogram displayed as a hanging and draping down onto a table.
In the evening we tried out La Coquettes blues/jazz bar – a place which I had found to try out for live music and a drink and we weren’t disappointed! Although we had to wait until 10.30pm for the music to begin, when it did, the whole bar came alive. The band performing were very entertaining, they really got into it and they were a good jazz band. We made sure we got there early to get a decent seat for the performance and we were given some sunflower seeds to munch on whilst enjoying the music with our beers! The interior of the place definitely added to the atmosphere appropriately; it’s set underground with grungy, bare-brick walls and the seats are accompanied with small tables and low-hanging lights. It’s definitely a secret, hidden gem of Madrid and I would definitely go back to visit again. It’s things like this which I’ll miss when I move back home; being able to go and see some live music in a local bar for free and of a less common music genre.
Moving onto when the girls visited me, on Sunday the 10th we took a trip to the Conde Duque cultural centre. The place, free to get into, used to be a former military barracks and was then apparently remodeled and reopened in 2011. Another large building, means it is another ideal venue for housing art. The art displayed was interesting, perhaps not quite to my personal taste, but it was still very fascinating to visit the huge building and see the different works they were displaying there. The centre also supposedly dedicates itself to hosting cultural and leisure activites for all ages and audiences – concerts, exhibitions, trade fairs and film showings.
On Monday the 11th, the morning the girl’s left, I took them to a café in Lavapies called Bocono. This was because they are a quirky, affordable and highly rated place to go to but also to see their photography wall displayed at the back of the café. What was once a plain white wall, is now dedicated solely to displaying photography work – which as a photographer, I think is really great and beneficial for the artists and locals to see! Following this, Kelly Bryan and I as I mentioned in a previous blog post, have in fact been in contact with this café in an attempt to exhibit our own photography project here!
From visiting all these different cultural and artistic sites over my time living here in Madrid, I really do appreciate and value how much space they give to art. Not only this, but the fact that near enough all of the ones I’ve been to are free to visit or at least free to visit on certain days and hours. In comparison to back home in England, due to the artistic funding cuts etc, there are limited spaces (especially as vast) dedicated purely to hosting art projects and promoting artworks. Additionally, those that are used, often charge visitors to get in. I feel that Madrid, whether it’s a former historical/industrial site or a café, are more likely to support art than back home in England. Not only this, but are also willing to allow members of the public, of all demographics, to experience and view it as they hardly ever charge visiting fees (or as mentioned, they’ll often be a day or certain hours when you can visit for free) and I do respect and value this greatly.