News
Five EMT buses turn their routes into urban art galleries
Contemporary art takes to the streets in Madrid. Five EMT lines are displaying works by local artists until mid-March. The initiative coincides with ARCO and transforms the experience of getting around the city.
This week, those boarding EMT buses on lines 9, 10, 37, 52 and 146 will discover something different: art slips into the daily journey and turns public transport into a mobile gallery. Until 15 March, coinciding with the ARCO fair, five Madrid creators will show their works on these vehicles, bringing local creativity closer to those who cross the city every day.
The proposal, promoted by the City Council with the collaboration of Global España, seeks to make contemporary art part of the urban and everyday landscape. Marta Ruiz, Cristina Iturrioz, Jaime Monge, Claudia Alonso-Allende and Anna Barrachina are the names behind the pieces that will dress the buses. Their works, very different from one another, share the aim of surprising and connecting with passengers and pedestrians.
The selected routes pass through key points in Madrid: from Sol and Callao to neighbourhoods such as Hortaleza, Palomeras and Los Molinos. Thus, art unfolds through the centre and also through less touristy areas, inviting people to look at the city with different eyes. The delegate for Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility, Borja Carabante, has highlighted that the EMT becomes a showcase for the almost two million people who use the service every day.
At the presentation, held in front of the Palacio de Cibeles, Logroño artist Daniel Domínguez Ruiz finished one of her works live, inspired by Madrid’s movement and energy. Alongside her, Cristina Iturrioz contributes her multidisciplinary and experimental vision, while Jaime Monge explores the human figure through abstraction. Claudia Alonso-Allende, trained at the Complutense, proposes a collage based on Madrid frescoes, and Anna Barrachina, with roots in Germany, mixes colour with reflection on individual freedom.
The EMT thus takes advantage of the visual potential of its buses to bring art to every corner of the city, integrating it into routine and the urban landscape. Madrid is already beginning to move in that direction.
The Empresa Municipal de Transportes has spent decades adapting to the city’s changes. Beyond its role as a mobility network, in recent years the EMT has sought to open itself to cultural and social initiatives that connect with the daily life of people in Madrid. Turning buses into artistic supports shows how public transport can also be a space for encounter and creativity, reflecting the pulse of a capital in constant transformation.