Building on the momentum generated by its first edition and with the aim of drawing an increasingly plural map of the contemporary artistic production that is promoted by the city’s galleries, CentroCentro presents the second edition of the PANORAMA MADRID project. This exhibition of exhibitions brings together ten of the most outstanding proposals that were put on in Madrid’s art galleries during the course of 2021.

As in the first edition, the projects chosen are one-person shows by artists from the national and international art scene who converge in time, given that they were all born between the 1960s and the 1980s. The jury’s view once again demonstrates the multidisciplinary nature of art and the breadth of its language, as the projects range from sculptural production and installations to pictorial art, video art and new media. They also establish an extensive thematic diapason that not only addresses the problems of today’s increasingly digitalised world, but also spawns new reflections on art and its power for social and cultural transformation.

Each of these offerings possesses a unique nuance that allows it to stand out from the exhibition as a whole. NoguerasBlanchard presents the story of a multifaceted character from the past in the exhibition Katalina, Antonio, Alonso by Mercedes Azpilicueta; while Fernando Sánchez Castillo has taken the intricate drawings of General García Barragán as the starting point for his exhibition Ex Positio at Albarrán Bourdais. But it’s not just a matter of rethinking history in order to understand the present, Julian Rosefeldt’s, Penumbra at the Helga de Alvear Gallery imagines a distant future from today’s complex settings. In turn, these paradoxical notions of time and space are intercepted at their different edges in Gonçalo Sena’s Circular Spaces and Oriol Vilanova’s Con los ojos abiertos en la oscuridad, from the Heinrich Ehrhardt and the Elba Benítez galleries, respectively.

Meanwhile, Belén Uriel’s Rayo Verde at The RYDER Projects recreates a forest of sculptures that confronts the idealisation of nature; while Juan López’s Surco at the Juan Silió Gallery embraces the idea of a disembodied city, a kind of archaeological discovery. At the same time, in Delta at Intersticio, Martin Llavaneras manages to recreate something akin to a landscape where the accidental and instinctive ultimately subjugate a scenario overloaded with meanings. Finally, the selection also includes such highlights as Las Palabras y las Cosas by Los Torreznos at the Freijo Gallery and Deseos borrados descolocados by Miquel Mont at FORMATOCOMODO Gallery, two offerings that, from a distance, view art as a space in which one can reassess one’s own everyday experience.

PANORAMA MADRID 02 reactivates a space where different agents of contemporary creation come together, establishing a meeting point and dialogue amidst the cultural fabric of Madrid. Although art galleries have gained more and more public support through funds and subsidies intended to encourage their growth, the benefits they receive are still insufficient — even, one might say, tangential — if we accept that it is the artists and curators who predominantly legitimise these collaborations. Hence, on this occasion, it is the galleries and their artistic offerings that are the protagonists. At CentroCentro, we understand the need to support and showcase the great work they do, work that is all too often invisible to the non-specialised spectator. PANORAMA MADRID 02 is driven, once again, by the centre’s need and responsibility as a public institution to bring current productions closer to new audiences and to highlight the efforts that the different actors in the cultural industry dedicate to contemporary art.

On this occasion, CentroCentro's artistic director, Giulietta Zanmatti Speranza, has worked together with a specialised jury made up of five professionals from the curatorial, research and cultural management fields: Marta Ramos-Yzquierdo, Pilar Soler, Virginia Torrente, Sergio Rubira and Javier Martín-Jiménez.

Selected exhibitions:

Mercedes Azpilicueta, Katalina, Antonio, Alonso. NoguerasBlanchard
Martin Llavaneras, Delta. Intersticio
Juan López, Surco. Galería Juan Silió
Miquel Mont, Deseos Borrados Recoloreados. Galería FORMATOCOMODO
Julian Rosefeldt, Penumbra. Galería Helga de Alvear
Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Ex Positio. Albarrán Bourdais
Gonçalo Sena, Circular Spaces. Galería Heinrich Ehrhardt
Los Torreznos, Las Palabras y las Cosas. Galería Freijo
Belén Uriel, Rayo Verde. The RYDER Projects
Oriol Vilanova, Con los ojos abiertos en la oscuridad. Galería Elba Benítez