madrid

Rencontres Internationales – Madrid

22 May 2012

Again, again and again. One of those unmissable dates for every Madrilian cinema & new arts sybarite starting tomorrow! So we thought… why not providing one of our quick reminders and forwarding the invite?

Rencontres Internationales Mad poster 2012
Rencontres Internationales Mad poster 2012

Between Paris and Berlin… there was always Madrid so the next 4 days will be that great time to discover all the new cinema & contemporary visual arts novelties this year has to offer…. @ the central Filmoteca and the Matadero Cineteca.

Documentaries, new storytelling, audiovisual arts… an international programme gathering 50 works from Spain, France, Germany and 20 other countries that will kick off tomorrow @ 19:30 with the presentation of Christian Barani’s “My Dubai Life”  followed by many other well (and less) known artists like Libia Castro & Olafur Olafsson, Ugnius Gelnuda or Florin Tudor.

Still from Arjen De Leeuw's A place where life was captured
Still from Arjen De Leeuw's A place where life was captured

So as usual… if you happen to be in Madrid during the next few days… read the program, see if there’s anything that catches your eye… and if new fiction is something of interest… then you may want to download the invitation for 2 people for tomorrows opening screening @ the Madrilian Filmoteca. The invite this way, and more info this other way. Enjoy!

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ccMAD

18 January 2012

Quick reminder for those lazy souls living in Madrid! ccMAD will open its doors tomorrow for an intense 4-day Creative Commons Film Festival in the Spanish capital. A first for the city (a bit behind Barcelona as the Catalonian city organised last year their own and already 2nd edition of the CC festival, the BccN).

ccmad-poster
ccmad-poster

Much like the BccN, ccMAD proposes a list of talks, films and hours-long discussions around the potential Internet offers to film creators… who decide to use the CC licenses of course. The screenings and talks will take place in 2 places: La Casa Encendida & MediaLab-Prado.

The first will offer (with live streaming btw!) during the weekend the premiere of several films and a talk with Dutch director  Bregtje van der Haak (behind California Dreaming documentary) and Media Woman of the Year 2006. Other films include Maud & Leo by Jonny von Wallstram or our big favorite “An Island” by French director Vincent Moon.

But first … the festival presentaion @ Media-Lab Prado tomorrow! With a first talk by Guillermo Zapata, Pieter de Vos, Alberto Tognazzi and Stephane Grueso followed by the screening of a few shorts and on Friday more screenings, & more talks.

The festival is a copy of the BccN as we said before with a big objective: create a world network of CC festivals, so if you want to take the festival to your town just like in Madrid… you may want to read their helpguide. Oh and if you’re around Madrid… just visit … it’s free. More info this way.

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Delirious City

5 January 2012

On their page it says until today, but we know it’s still open until Saturday 😉 so … hurry up! Last 2 days to admire Antonio Girbés’s Delirious City in Madrid!

National Library by Antonio Rizzo - Antonio Girbes
National Library by Antonio Rizzo - Antonio Girbes

Antonio Girbés who went under a period of obscurity in recent yeas (major galleries wouldn’t be willing to give room to his photographic series) seems to be born again after the rescuing of Elena Ochoa (Foster’s wife and founder of Ivory Press) for this latest exhibition which opened last November.

In this work in progress Girbés is after ‘the construction of an excessive, unreal city out of time’ as he puts himself, and to this end the artist culls fragments of architecture from his travels to Paris, Moscow, Naples, New York, Shanghai, Barcelona and Vienna.

Artist Studio by Baldassare Longhena - Antonio Girbes
Artist Studio by Baldassare Longhena - Antonio Girbes

Very often, the series look like collages of various images… and they are somehow mixed compositions… but always based on one single photo which Girbés still takes with the same analogue camera he’s always used. Something young photographers seem to be dumbfounded by…. As a result, starting out from a snapshot captured on his Hasselblad, each image is scanned and meticulously processed by the artist to create divisions, repetitions and mirror plays.

Cemetery by Mauro Codussi - Antonio Girbes
Cemetery by Mauro Codussi - Antonio Girbes

Last minute reminder… the Ivorypress gallery is situated @ Comandante Zorita 46, 28020, Madrid. Enjoy!

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Red cavalry

Fantasy by Kuzmá Petrov-Vodkin - 1925
3 January 2012

Quick, brief, tiny reminder on one of last year’s best exhibitions in Madrid which closes in a couple of weeks: Red Cavalry, “Creation and Power in Soviet Russia between 1917 and 1945”.

Red Cavalry by Kazimir Malévichy - 1930
Red Cavalry by Kazimir Malévichy - 1930

As part of the already finished Dual cultural year Spain-Russia which included an extensively list of events and exchanges between both countries (probably the Hermitage-Prado Museum painting exchanges was the most noticeable) La Casa Encendida decided to contribute the program with their late exhibition on Soviet art.

“Red Cavalry” focuses on the period of time extending from the march of the First Cavalry Army in the Russian Civil War (1918-1921) to the intervention of the Red Cavalry in the Second World War (1941-1945). The title is also a reference to two homonymous masterpieces from the same period: the collection of short stories by Isaak Babel and the famous painting by Malevich, which opens the exhibition.

Workers buildling the Magnitogorsk railway by Kuzmá Nikoláyev
Workers buildling the Magnitogorsk railway by Kuzmá Nikoláyev

Currated by Rosa Ferré, RC offers a cultural and artistic overview of Soviet Russia in the 1920s and 1930s. In addition to exploring the collaboration—voluntary and enthusiastic in some cases, imposed and forced in others—of writers, musicians, artists, theater directors and film-makers in the construction of socialism (its experiments, commitments and sufferings), it also analyses the cultural policies pursued by Lenin, Stalin and their inner circle.

Football by Yuri Pímenov - 1926
Football by Yuri Pímenov - 1926

Those 3 decades was a real explosion of talent in Russia, some consider no other country has ever experienced such a concentration of talent… you’ll certainly be willing to dive deeper into each of the artists’ own careers and explore their legacy… we can’t think of a better way to discover the soviet creative power than to visit the exhibition yourself, 2 weeks left!! (oh and for those of you who understand Spanish there’s this dedicated documentary by TVE available).

Vladímir Mayakovski at the ROSTA workshop by Aleksandr Deineka - 1941
Vladímir Mayakovski at the ROSTA workshop by Aleksandr Deineka - 1941

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RB Music academy 2011 – Madrid

23 October 2011

We encouraged you earlier last February to participate in this year’s edition and after a whole 2011 filled with amazing tours @ some of the most vibrant world cities (From Cape Town, Paris or Berlin to Detroit, Toronto and this weekend in London), The RedBull Music Academy will finally take place in Madrid by the end of the month @ one of the most iconic landmarks of the Spanish Capital… the old  slaughterhouse.

Madrid's Matadero (slaughterhouse) now the city's biggest cultural hub
Madrid's Matadero now the city's biggest cultural hub

This year’s edition includes 5 weeks of amazing music (wise wise choice of concerts & night clubbing) along with workshops, talks… and anything & everything you can imagine coming out of  the RB Music labs. And given that RBM have decided Matadero will be their headquarters for just over a month the organisation have built a dedicated studio complex inside the music building.

The good thing about the RBAcademy is that the space should live on as a cultural hub once the event is over – and that the music won’t stop in years to come. The whole line-up of events & concerts still has to be unveiled but many figures like Boska, Frankie Knuckles, El Guincho or Roman Flügel have already been confirmed. Although the best bit will be for those successful 30 applicants which will enjoy one of two fortnight-long terms. Happy booging!

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Nordic Days 2011

27 September 2011

Last year with the beginning of autumn a new festival started to take shape in the streets of Madrid. A viking invasion leaded by Jonathan Johansson, Kaspar, Murder and José González. But it wasn’t all about viking music, viking rock & soft pop. There was some room for cinema, dark literature and a few talks too, but most of the festival gravitated around our beloved viking sounds. How about this year?

dias-nordicos-logo

Well yes, there will be a second edition of the festival starting this same month! Different viking collection of course.

Opening the festival this year we’ll have Zebra And Snake and the always intriguing Andi Almqvist with his nightmares and threatening shadows. Let’s see which dark secrets and ghost stories he brings down to Madrid this time.

Andi Almqvist
Andi Almqvist

What else have they prepared for us? This late September Anna Brønsted (Our Broken Garden), Helgi Jónsson (one of  Sigur Rós members) & The Megaphonic Thrift will be giving a late evening concert @ Sala Galileo Galilei for free just like the opening day. Invitations are still available but it will be on a first-come first-served so you can expect long queues just like last year.

The day afterwards a designer-through-t-shirt exhibition will open until late October @ the Finnish Iberoamerican Institute with some of the most important nordic urban artist. And while we wait for the October line-up details (Junip will surely be there by the end of the month presenting their new EP) you can start feeling the icy vibe with this Spotify playlist.

A must-visit to start the Madrilian autumn this month. More info on their dedicated page (in Spanish-only unfortunately).

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