For the first time ever, MADRID ABIERTO has taken place over two years. This was one of the changes proposed by the advisory committee that completed its task in 2008. One of the members of this committee is the curator of this sixth edition, Cecilia Andersson, who analyses in her introduction the processes she has followed to select the ten art interventions (Adaptive Actions, Lara Almarcegui, Laurence Bonvin, Susanne Bosch, Lisa Cheung, Teddy Cruz, Iñaki Larrimbe, Josep-Maria Martín, Gustavo Romano and Pablo Valbuena) which we are presenting from 4th to 28th February 2010, although several of them have been active for some months now and in different forms in the city.
Participation in the open call was quite plentiful, reaching 587 proposals by 769 artists from around the world. In the area of sound art 48 were presented, from which we selected Sarah Boothroyd, Manuel Calurano/Anna Raimondo, Yves Coussement, Javier Díaz-Ena, Wade Matthews, Annemarie Steinvoort, Matthew Verdon, Hernani Villaseñor and Gloria Zein. To these were added the audiovisual works of Fausto Grossi, Sinbait (Puy San Martín y Nerea Lekuona), Izibeñe Oñederra, Logela, Iván Argote, David Elgea, Furarellefalle, Xuban Intxausti, Wolf D. Schreiber, Fabricio Caiazza, Lobo Pasolini and the group Left Hand Rotation, selected in the ninth and tenth edition of Intervenciones.tv, a project which has decided to close its cycle of activities with the participation of guests such as Antoni Muntadas, Eugeni Bonet, Antoni Mercader and Joaquim Dols, whose works were also included in our section on audiovisuals.
In February 2009, we held at La Casa Encendida in Madrid the seminar Urban Buddy Scheme, together with a presentation of the artists and a meeting to prepare their projects in the form of an open workshop. The Spanish participants invited were Basurama, C.A.S.I.T.A., Javier Duero, Exprimentolimon, Uriel Fogué, Andrés Jaque, Kawamura-Ganjavian, Ludotek, Luis Úrculo and Wunderkammer, and from other countries, Alexander Gerdel (Venezuela), International Festival (Sweden), Kyong Park (USA), Adriana Salazar (Colombia) and STEALTH.unlimited (Serbia/Netherlands). The seminar analysed the possibilities of a socio-cultural and politically engaged collaborative effort, as well as the way in which such an initiative could act as a catalyst for change in the city, striving to activate processes that integrate new scopes of knowledge within existing ones.
Thanks to this new biennial format, the artists selected have had more time to become familiar with the local context and to prepare their projects, also facilitating various connections between some of the projects and between several of them with many city agents. This has also allowed addressing some of the gaps which concern us most, such as the lack of an educational programme. As a result of the collaboration of the doctorate programme Art Applications in Social Integration of the Faculty of Education at the Complutense University of Madrid and thanks to the interest of its director, Marián López Fernández-Cao, we have had the valuable contribution of María Molina, who has prepared a prototype of an educational workshop and then developed it as a pilot experience (Aula Abierta), as well as providing part of the contents for the specific projects by Susanne Bosch and Lisa Cheung.
Other of the usual failings is the lack of resources to communicate the projects, since our choice has always been to favour production. Throughout 2009 we distributed the book Madrid Abierto 2004-2008, which includes the fifty-five projects conducted in the first five editions, as well as the pieces selected in the sound and audiovisual sections and the roundtables held. Additionally, the information desk at La Casa Encendida, as well as the roundtables and artist presentations, have helped overcome this lack of information in the latest editions, together with the distribution of fifty thousand issues of this publication. Nonetheless, information out in the street is still a weakness of this and many other programmes of public art. Previously we used various means to resolve this issue, and we even built, together with a street furniture company, an information point prototype designed by Kawamura-Ganjavian. Now we have taken another small step by producing the INFOMAB, also designed by them at their Studio Banana, a space with which Madrid Abierto aims to extend this collaboration, in a similar way as that promoted by Mariano Serrano, who has collaborated in various aspects of this edition, as well as Iñaki Domínguez, Jorge Todolí, Sonsoles Rodríguez and Paula González. We would like to thank all of them most sincerely and in particular, we would like to thank Marta de la Torriente, whose work as general coordinator is never sufficiently acknowledged.
Organised by the Cultural Association MADRID ABIERTO, this edition is being promoted by the Vice Presidency, Regional Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Office of the Spokesperson of the Regional Government of Madrid and the Government Area of Arts of the Madrid Council, with the collaboration of Casa de América, Fundación Telefónica, La Casa Encendida, Círculo de Bellas Artes, ARCO, Ministerio de Cultura, Radio Nacional de España, Canal Metro, Fundación Rodríguez/Centro Cultural Montehermoso, Pro Helvetia, British Council, Art Council of North Ireland, Canada Council for the Arts, AECID, Teatro Fernán Gómez, Studio Kawamura-Ganjavian and Zoohaus. Continuing with the work of previous editions RMS La Asociación is in charge of coordination and equipo 451 of graphics and the web (www.madridabierto.com). Our thanks as well go to all of them.
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JORGE DÍEZ
Cultural director and curator. Director of Madrid Abierto and co-director of the MBA in Companies and Cultural Institutions of the Santillana/Salamanca University, curator of the 2008-09 program Espai 13 of the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona.
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