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The Lázaro Galdiano garden becomes a free gallery from today
The garden of the Lázaro Galdiano Museum changes appearance from this Wednesday, 9 September. Thirteen sculptures by as many artists are distributed around Parque Florido, on Serrano Street, turning one of the historic gardens in the Salamanca neighbourhood into a free open-air art space until 15 November.
The exhibition is titled Between the Grid and Life and forms part of the 17th edition of Apertura Madrid Gallery Weekend. It opens this Wednesday at 19:30 and marks the second consecutive year in which the museum uses its gardens to take contemporary art out of galleries and place it among trees, hedges and paths.
The route brings together materials and forms that are difficult to find together. There is corten steel, Carrara marble, iron, ceramics, aluminium, porcelain and reused objects. Curator Begoña Torres presents the exhibition as a collision between geometric structures and what is harder to order: the body, the passage of time, memory, chance and nature.
One of the most recognisable pieces will be Compass, by Carlos Albert, a corten-steel structure that requires visitors to walk around it to understand its forms. Nearby will be SC-09-A/100, by David Magán, made of stainless steel, and Ciclo vital, by Tamara Arroyo, which combines iron, enamel and ceramics.
Visitors will also find Afrodita IV, a 1989 work by sculptor Andreu Alfaro made of white Carrara marble; Levedad I, by Cristina Almodóvar; and Arbor, by Mar Solís, a curved corten-steel structure that visually enters the garden’s vegetation.
Some pieces move even further away from traditional sculpture. The Portuguese artist Nuno Nunes-Ferreira has built Torre Bela from used hoes, while Josep Maynou presents Huevos fritos, made from porcelain cisterns and ping-pong balls. The Salvadoran Simón Vega uses iron, metal sheets and recycled objects in Estela del Gobernante G.
Two works have been created specifically for this setting. Sandra del Val installs Asobiba, made from glazed tiles, cement and refractory material, while the Cuban Dagoberto Rodríguez brings Bloques (I, II and III) to the garden, pieces inspired by Lego aesthetics through which he relates play, architecture, memory and politics.
The exhibition also includes works by Pedro Calapez and Javier Bravo de la Rueda and is spread across different points of Parque Florido, so that the visit works as a walk in which sculptures appear among the vegetation and architecture of the former mansion.
Entry to the garden to see it is free. Museo Lázaro Galdiano is at Serrano, 122, and the exhibition can be visited from Tuesday to Sunday from 09:30 to 15:00. From Tuesday to Friday it also opens in the afternoon, from 16:30 to 19:30. It will remain installed until 15 November.