Activity

There is a desert
immense
at the back of our
retinas
we see nothing
nothing
unless it is
his disguise
the distant confused whisper
in an unknown language

It has happened to us all. That feeling, though short-lived, is very beautiful: you are with your friends and you play a song that you love, you read an excerpt from one of your favourite books, or you want to share a photograph that has meant something to you for many years. You feel that desire to share the delight of an obsession, to share its magnetism.

This project arose from exploring an obsession that morphed over time and that many people throughout history have experienced. We are referring to invisibility. Where does it come from? How can we become invisible, manage to vanish – dissolve – to not be seen or detected?

This will be the starting point from which, together, we will explore different notions that, precisely, do not fit purely within the physical realm. Voice, a whisper, breath. Their rhythms. Magic and escapism. Leaping into the unknown. Camouflaging ourselves in the night. Accepting the risk of listening to our intuitions. Other ways of being close, although these – apparently – are invisible.

Project developed by the artist Raquel G. Ibañez

Manuel Polo and Jesús Macías are the stars of Todo lo contrario. These ninety-somethings are what you could call film buffs, although unknowingly, because they would never think in those terms, but they use scenes from films to show us what they are thinking or they flesh out ordinary memories with movie memories. They lived during that time and in that world when cinema, the only art form that has been genuinely popular, had an all-pervasive presence; you worked, ate, slept, went to the cinema, just one more thing in the everyday flow of life. This programme came about from a meeting between them and a voluntary film buff, someone who started out at the end of that time and of that world.

Following many conversations and films that the involuntary and voluntary film buffs mentioned and noted, respectively, it was whittled down to six. Manolo’s and Jesús’s tastes are filtered through another taste. Six examples of the talent accumulated in Hollywood during the golden age of the big studios. Six seminal movies, six true works of art and sources of aesthetic (and ethical) pleasure. Six ethical and (aesthetic) hypotheses whose characters mutate, with the torment and pain and excitement of change; they find out who they are and discover their inner desires through chance meetings, reunions, disagreements. And Manolo and Jesús, who saw them, perhaps get to discover something about themselves and about others through them, recognising themselves in them. And perhaps we will too.

The titles already give us a clue to the (dramatic) weight that falls on women, dealing with their adventures and their freedom. After Captains Courageous we could ask ourselves “How can you grow up without losing your childhood?” and answer, thanks to It Happened One Night and The Awful Truth, “by letting fantasies of love lead to companionship, seriousness to improvisation, humour and fun”. But you can still hear a voice saying: “Yes, ok, but… What happens if we are women light years away from the standard, or if certain relationships place us in danger?” That’s where the queen, the pirate and the voyager have something to say.

Passing on this experience, at once intimate and shared, digging up those dead who are still very much alive in the minds of non-experts, helps to understand the overwhelming influence and presence of cinema, when it offered an opportunity for sentient learning every day, a gift for the eyes everyday for everyone. Every week, Jesús, a hairdresser since he was practically a boy, would go through the programme and choose the movies he was going to see, without bothering to take into account how near or how far away the cinema was from his home-hairdresser’s: “Whether it was in Tetuán or Vallecas, it didn’t matter, I went anyway. All cinemas were for me”.

CALL CLOSED

Artistas en residencia is a programme organised jointly by La Casa Encendida, CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo and, from 2020, MACBA, whose goal is to support creation and experimentation focused on performative work with the body. The programme is conceived to dovetail with the regular programme of LCE, CA2M and MACBA, and for this reason the projects chosen are those that best fit in with the art centres’ lines of research and experimentation. Artists in Residence also provides an opportunity to strike up a dialogue between creators and other agents associated with the art centres and their respective programmes.

This year the call received a total of 381 projects. We would like to thank all applicants for their interest in the call and for sending us their projects. The artists selected for the Artists in Residence 2020 programme are:

- PABLO ARAYA QUIROS: VENENO (trash)atlán(tica)

- CLARA BEST: Musuq Kawsay Tusuy Pacha / El nuevo tiempo de vivir bailando

- LUZ BROTO: Duplicar órdenes

- JACOBO CAYETANO GARCÍA FOUZ: LAS COSAS

- CLARA GARCÍA FRAILE: El Tiempo de la Revolución

- DAMIÁN MONTESDEOCA Y AMAIA BONO: La repetición

- SOFÍA MONTENEGRO: Relámpago: Agitar con Fuerza

- AMARANTA VELARDE: Estancias Acústicas

- INICIATIVA SEXUAL FEMENINA: La mártir Felicitas

Due to the large number of projects we received, we are not able to reply to all applicants who presented projects to the call, but we wish to thank each and every one for their participation.

The 8-week residency is divided between two of the three sites: La Casa Encendida, CA2M and MACBA. The times and work spaces shall be agreed in function of the needs of the project and the availability of space at the respective art centres.

For more information, write to actividades.ca2m@madrid.org, lacasaencendida@montemadrid.es, programespublics@macba.cat with the subject Artists in Residence 2020.

With the support of

At the beginning of 2020 we will be opening the exhibition Absurd Humour: A Constellation of Folly in Spain and, similarly to other occasions, we have invited an artist to prepare what we call a Positioned Visit. This time Alba Rihe has created an audio-guide that will take us on a trip through the exhibition, with what could be considered a soundtrack which is a kind of pastiche, a chimera of voices, a word whispered in your ear that caresses the eardrum and which we hope will make us break out in hysterical laughter in the exhibition hall.

The audio-guides are available free of charge at the museum reception desk during the course of the exhibition. You can also listen the audio on Soundcloud or download in your devices here:

(silence) – SSH – SSH – SSH – SSH – SSH – SSH – SSH – (silence) – UUU – UUU – UUU – UUU – UUU – UUU – UUU – (silence) – SSH – SSH – SSH – SSH – SSH – SSH – SSH – (silence) – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – WE – ARE – HEL – LO – WE– ARE – HEL – LO – WE – ARE – HEL – LO – WE – ARE – HEL – LO – WE – ARE – HEL – LO – THE– CHOIR – HEL – LO – CHOIR –HEL – LO– CHOIR – HEL – THE – CHOIR – HEL – THE – CHOIR – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – LO – HEL – THEY – ARE– THE– CHOIR – THEY – ARE– THE– CHOIR – THEY – ARE– THE– CHOIR – THEY – ARE– THE– CHOIR – THEY – ARE– THE– CHOIR – WE– ARE– THE– CHOIR– WE– ARE – THE– CHOIR – WE– ARE– THE– CHOIR – WE– ARE– THE– CHOIR – WE– ARE– THE– CHOIR – WE– ARE– THE– CHOIR –
 

An amateur choir is a creative project in which all types of voices are welcome. The choir doesn’t just sing songs but aspires to embrace all the sounds in the world. That’s why it sings through silence, mumbling and stuttering and with sounds that sometimes involuntarily escape the body like laughter and screams..
 

During confinement we managed to counter our fears by singing to and with each other over the phone. We find melodies in the washing machine, stories through the window and a new language of gargling and birdsong. Now we are really looking forward to seeing each other in person once again and finally going together to Zarzalejo to sing with the choir of the artist Amalia Fernández.

// ADMISSION FREE + DONATION TO RED DE APOYO MUTUO DE MÓSTOLES //
// Book your ticket for 19 September (SOLD OUT) //
// Book your ticket for 26 September (SOLD OUT) //

Autoplacer is back for two days of concerts on the terrace at CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo. This year’s event will be very special and adapted to the so-called new normality.

This year’s festival will be taking all the safety measures recommended by health authorities for live music events. That’s why this year the festival will be held in the open space of the terrace, which will be decorated by the designers Prieto & Cuervo, and the size of the audience will be limited to ensure social distancing.

Likewise, to make sure that the numbers comply with the current health measures, tickets must be booked beforehand using the form to be found in our website. However, you can only book for one of the two days. Bookings will be accepted until reaching the limit.

Besides, this year Autoplacer is joining forces with Red de Apoyo Mutuo de Móstoles [Mostoles Mutual Support Network], a local independent self-run community organisation that provides mutual support among equals and manages a solidarity food bank. CA2M and the organisers of the festival encourage all the attendants to the concerts and the participating groups and collaborations to make a contribution to the food bank with basic food stuffs at the entrance to Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo on the two days of the event.

With concerts by:

SATURDAY 19
AJUAR | REBE | MORREO | PANTOCRÁTOR

SATURDAY 26
TZETZE | POLSEGUERA | SOMOS LA HERENCIA | TOYS SARASAS

With the collaborations of:

PRIETO & CUERVO (Set Design)
RED DE APOYO MUTUO DE MÓSTOLES

+ AUTOPLACER ROUGH-CUTS COMPETITION 2020
+ AUTOPLACER/CONJETURAR (Working Grup)

CONCERTS

SATURDAY 19 SEPTEMBER
Booking opens on Friday 4 September

Ajuar. Ajuar revives and revamps the music and dance genre of La Jota from Leon and Extremadura from a feminist angle. Ajuar is made up of Ana and Corazón, a tambourine and a mortar.

Rebe. Entering Rebe’s world is more than stepping into their liquid, evanescent, analogical, toy-like, sensual and supersoft bedroom pop. It also means wading into their disturbing aesthetics, lyrics and punctuated writing and into their baffling videos, all those things that make it difficult to boil Rebe down to just their ditties.

Morreo. Morreo is the Madrid-based Andalusian-rooted pop duo of Germán and Joseca. Following last year’s release of Cluedo, their first single, they have prepared a barrage of new melodies with guitar and a play of voices that bring to mind the mythical Los Brincos.

Pantocrator. A combo from Barcelona led by Marta Delmont and Marina Correa and their inexistent emotional control, with Xiri Romaní on drums, Rober Busquets on guitar, and a live sound that fuses powerpop and garage peppered with loutish realism. Maybe you don’t know you belong to the Ministry of the Basics, but they do.

SÁBADO 26 DE SEPTIEMBRE
Apertura de inscripciones: viernes 11 de septiembre

Tzetze. With around thirty concerts to their credit, Claire and Raúl are no shrinking violets. This duo focuses mainly on experimenting with rhythms through repetition and on compositional and stylistic disorder, leaving no room to talk about specific genres or exercises in style.

Polseguera. Everything Tomeu Mulet, Polseguera’s frontman, does has to do with loss, undermining any reality we believed to be solid. Their album Vida Grisa is like a still life painting created from an emotional wound, evoking memories which might be beautiful in themselves but are no longer alive: youth is long gone, replaced by an emotionally drained routine. The result is cold but wholly human.

Somos la herencia. Somos la Herencia is one of the best kept open secrets of Spain’s underground scene. The Madrileño band make their debut with Dolo, a sonic prayer book sure to become the soundtrack of a whole era. With a sound somewhere between the urgency of post-punk, experimental contemporary electronics and atmospheric dark-wave, they combine minimalist sound design with maximalist punk abrasion.

Toys Sarasas. After their first incarnation around 2000, Toys Sarasas regrouped in 2009 after seeing Sandra Montiel in action in Torremolinos. Their influences can best be described as Benidorm’s and Torremolinos’s best transvestites meet low-fi crust, hardcore, gothic and extreme metal. From Disrupt to Rocío Jurado, from Cheb Bello to Napalm Death and Niña Pastori’s first two albums.

Con la colaboración de

Con la colaboración de

This space within the library came about naturally as a response to our efforts to provide room for, to lend visibility to and to register bibliographic references that are proposed as new routes for reading and expanding the library’s catalogue and to tie in with the art centre’s activities and exhibitions. The publication, the paper and the document all serve us as a form of generating a stable presence in the processes that take place in the museum within a limited time span.

This four-month period we will be focusing on the activity The Triangle. An Amateur Choir. The library will be an extension of the research being carried out by the musicians, vibrations and noise we have heard throughout the course of the last year and which will be prolonged during this coming year. The selection hopes to facilitate a polyhedral approach to the elusive part of our bodies which is the voice.

In addition, another itinerary will be prepared to tie in with the exhibition Wish to Seem Night

Hi, I’m Galaxia La Perla. I like to express myself through dance, voguing, runway, makeup and fashion both in physical and digital spaces.

I always work from an activist antiracist perspective and I greatly appreciate the creation of safe, community spaces. Over the next few days this workshop will draw a space through movement, transforming our body, exploring dance through play. There are many ways to enjoy dance and in this workshop we will experiment with what each individual can create through the everyday and close at hand.

Admission free during workshop hours until full capacity is reached. Capacity: maximum 20 people. Open to anyone who is interested.

CA2M’s Vegetable Garden on the Roof has been going for eight years. Over that time, we have experienced a profound process in which many different people have participated, making it a meeting point based on working together and sharing knowledge.

Since its beginnings, the idea behind the Vegetable Garden on the Roof was for it to be a space that would go beyond being an organic farming school and would form a community. This goal has been achieved; today it is a focal point for people with many accumulated years of learning, a place of enjoyment and coexistence based on the practice of agroecology and permaculture. It is also a place for the recovery of traditional knowledge of the farming world and a reflection on the challenges of being sustainable.

Today, the community of CA2M’s Vegetable Garden on the Roof faces the challenge of opening up to new people without forgetting the enthusiasm for research and experimentation that motivates existing participants. This course will give an opportunity to those who are interested in getting started in agroecology and permaculture, at its most basic levels, yet still meet the needs and pace of learning of those who have been protagonists from the start and who require more specific workshops with very advanced content. To do this, during the first part of the course, we will work two hours on alternate Fridays, to give possibilities to those people who due to work or personal circumstances could not attend the conventional schedule.

In collaboration with Instituto de Transición Rompe el Círculo.

PROGRAMMING. THE MOST NATURAL VEGETABLE GARDEN

THE POWER OF PLANTS 11 AM

5 FEBRUARY | Plants That Look after Our Health 1. 11 AM
It is easy to know what the healing powers of some common plants are, but it is not easy to know how to use them. Learn to differentiate medicinal plants, their properties and uses. 

12 FEBRUARY | Plants That Look after Our Health 2. 11 AM
This workshop will teach you how to prepare oils, ointments and simple macerations that can be made at home. 

19 FEBRUARY | Plants That Look after Our Health 3. 11 AM
Delve into the world of natural cosmetics with some simple recipes that can easily be made at home.

26 FEBRUARY | Plants That Look after Our Health 4. 11 AM
Learn about the benefits of having plants at home, which ones are best suited for each room, and how to care for them.

THE NO-PLOUGH VEGETABLE GARDEN 5 PM

5 MARCH | No-Dig Gardening. How to set up a vegetable garden without ploughing the land. 5 PM
The belief has always been that, before planting a vegetable garden, we have to turn over the soil. This system explains why we should not do it and how we can prepare the land for cultivation.

12 MARCH | How To Get Rid of Weeds in a Vegetable Garden (Workshop at Gabriel Celaya School). 5 PM
One of the reasons why we plough the soil is to remove weeds before planting but, in doing so, we provide their seeds with the perfect conditions to multiply. So, what should we do?

26 MARCH | Preparing Raised Beds. Hugelkultur and raised beds. (Workshop at the Gabriel Celaya School) 5 PM
Learn different ways to prepare soil and keep it fertile for as long as possible without having to work it.

9 APRIL | Vermi-Compost at Home. 5 PM
Compost is essential in a “no-dig” garden. Learn how to create homemade vermi-compost using kitchen waste to make your own compost. (waste, composting)

16 APRIL | Seedbeds Using a Biointensive Form of Agriculture. 5 PM
Let’s start planting and preparing our first seedbeds for this spring.

23 APRIL | Biodiversity – above and below. 5 PM
Learn how to maintain biodiversity both on the soil’s surface and in its subsoil, both of which are fundamental for keeping it fertile.

In colaboration with: Instituto de Transición Rompe el Círculo.
 

All the activities at CA2M are for free

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of independent magazines published in a physical format, produced low-cost and distributed in limited editions. From the fanzine to the artist book, these publications are all spaces in which to promote and reflect on current-day cultural production.

As part of our program of library activities, CA2M will open a space for research and reflection revolving around independent editorial projects. An initiative that aims to create an archive of editions that are difficult to classify with a view to spreading and preserving this type of publication.

From the month of May, a permanent enquiries space will be set up to display fifteen new independent publications per month and provide a forum for encounters and presentations.