In 2024, the iconic MATADERO MADRID building in the Legazpi neighborhood, south (but not so south anymore) of the capital, celebrated its 100th anniversary. An architectural project made of  iron and red brick designed by architect Luis Bellido, it followed the model of the German pavilions of the time, but was adapted to its own territory, marking an entire era in the construction of this type of industrial site. At that time, Alfonso XIII reigned, and the city of Madrid was expanding southward with the proliferation of new neighborhoods along the banks of the Manzanares River that housed the newborn working class. In its heyday, it employed hundreds of workers, a self-contained micro-universe that housed not only staff but also residences, a chapel, and even its own rail transportation system to traverse its 165,415 square meters. After the Civil War, its functions began to change, shifting from a food market to a potato warehouse in the current warehouse, which was converted into a greenhouse in 1992. During  the 1970s, unsanitary conditions and the city’s growth led to a rethinking of new uses for the entire building, and its role as a large food market was relocated to the outskirts of the city, where Merca Madrid now stands. Its doors as a slaughterhouse closed in 1996.

After successive transformations, between 2003 and 2006, the year it reopened as a center for the production and exhibition of contemporary art, the slaughterhouse underwent a major transformation involving various cultural and political stakeholders. This culminated in the controversial, yet ultimately successful, burial of the M-30 and the creation of what we now know as Madrid Río. From this entire process, the current MADRID MATADERO was born, and this concludes our historiographical review, especially dedicated to our readers outside the capital.

The year of its reopening was also the first year in which the first Grants for Creation were launched, a much-needed program to support creators, collectives, and cultural agents from the municipality, which had and still has the duty to support the precarious local sector. The Center for Artist Residencies has had its own headquarters in Warehouse 16 of the complex since 2017. Since 2024, Luisa Espino has been the head of the CRA (from now on, I will refer to the center by its initials).

One of the regular parallel activities during Madrid Art Week, which coincides with the ARCO fair, is visiting the program and the CRA artists. An open day for studios and work processes that brings the largely unknown and often solitary artistic practice closer to the curious and frequently family-friendly general public that gathers around MATADERO. People who have nothing to do with the sector and are unaware of the real, daily, and domestic world of an artist.

This year’s eight winners are Christian Lagata, Álvaro Chior, Amaya Hernández, Julia Huete, Pablo Capitán del Río, Fermín J. Landa, Aldo Urbano, and Clara Sánchez Sala. Also joining the award-winning group are Gente que Miente, from the music production residency; the veteran collective Debajo del Sombrero; and Medialab’s Situated Research residents, Ana Esteve Reig, Maia Gattás Vargas, and XeniVisual Studies.

Frame 02 Gamer Dreams © Ana Esteve Reig

There are many proposals presented, so I wanted to focus on those I have explored within audiovisual field. As part of the 24-25 Situated Research 24-25  program, Ana Esteve Reig is preparing a new video installation, “The Neverending Story,” through which she seeks to share the experiences of eSports players and gamers. In recent years, Esteve Reig’s practice has focused on social dynamics in virtual reality.

The first images shared are of large, half-empty spaces and players absorbed in front of their machines, equating the cathartic act of these individuals with the death and resurrection that occurs repeatedly in most video games, assimilating it to the more mystical concept of death and reincarnation in Eastern cultures.

Pablo Capitán del Río studio © Natalia Piñuel

Pablo Capitán del Río draws on his career as a sculptor to connect with cinema through the exploration of images beyond traditional fictional narratives. The starting point is the 1960 film “Le trou” (The Hole), directed by Jacques Becker, in which a prison guard manipulates a series of food items received by prisoners, searching for knives, money, drugs, or hidden food. By manipulating these sequences, he will seek the intrinsic meaning of the material, generating an analogy between the body and gesture in cinematic and sculptural images.

Amaya Hernández presents an architectural research project, “Memory of Deindustrialization,” based on the gentrification processes of large cities like Madrid and how these transformations of capitalism affect not only their urban layout but also those who inhabit them. During the second half of the 20th century, industries in the city center were closed and abandoned, moving to the outskirts and leaving large derelict spaces. Her proposal, after having previously worked on how light affects vanished buildings such as the Olavide Market (demolished in 1974) or the Fisac ​​Pagoda (demolished in 1999),offers us the chance to see them again, at least in 3D (Madrid’s heritage has never been well treated by the government, but that’s a different debate). Hernández now focuses on the old slaughterhouse and the reconstruction of the collective memory of what it once was.

Alvaro Chior’ studio

Regarding sound projects, we met Álvaro Chior and his project “Alalá do lume,” where he explores the real and metaphorical space of the cave, linking it to the body and our sensory capacities. The project incorporated sound installations with sculpture and drawings. During our visit on Sunday, March 9, Chior led us into a dark and intimate listening space where he activated a cinematic musical session with lyrics, voices, references, and samples from various areas of pop culture, transforming them into a dark and disruptive territory.

Gente que Miente is the duo formed by Paz Alberta and Clau. Their musical project in residence is “4FAIT”, which they call “whipped cream, a mixed breakfast sandwich, a world record from the 1972 Olympics, and a first communion photo.” Their performance style and electronic humor resemble groups like Hidrogenesse, but with a more postmodern and even more ironic approach, as if their lyrics were voice notes left on a friend’s cell phone.

Next June, we’ll be able to see and hear the final results. We’ll be back at MATADERO and let you know.

[Featured Image: Frame “Un susurro lento” © Alvaro Chior]