Matadero Madrid fills with digital art and immersive experiences from this Thursday

The festival will bring digital creation to Centro Danza Matadero, Nave Una, Nave 11, Central de Diseño and other spaces in the former industrial complex. The programme blends electronic music, visual arts, performance and new technologies, featuring works that use digital tools to create experiences that go beyond a conventional screen.

Among the scheduled pieces are projects such as H U M Ī by Riccardo Giovinetto, alongside installations and experiences by both national and international artists. The line-up also includes concerts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, with names like Drew McDowall, Pedro Maia, Kelly Moran and Nao.

Visitors to Matadero during these days will also find one of the season’s most distinctive interventions. From 11 September, Carlos Aires takes over Nave 0 with Bailad, bailad, malditos, an installation created specifically for this space, which can be visited until 24 January. Admission is free until capacity is reached.

The work transforms the old warehouse into a dance floor surrounded by a shored-up structure. Aires uses screens, sound and metal elements to confront two seemingly opposing images: collective celebration and a sense of fragility or collapse. It is also the artist’s first solo exhibition in a public institution in Madrid.

The new season already began at the start of September with a series dedicated to choreographer Damien Jalet and the third edition of the literary festival Back to the Book, which brought together names such as Julieta Venegas, Paco Roca, Lucía Solla Sobral, Marta Sanz and Moderna de Pueblo until this Sunday. Those events have now concluded, but serve as a starting point for a programme that will continue throughout the autumn.

There will also be activities for families. Between September and December, Matadero will organise experimental film sessions for children, embroidery workshops, Halloween activities and creative sessions with wood, textiles and light. Some require advance booking and tickets are released on different dates.

The quarter will end with another of the centre’s major events. From 10 to 13 December, Cineteca Madrid will host the ninth edition of Animario, the Festival Internacional de Animación Contemporánea de Madrid, rounding off a season in which film, literature, dance, art and technology share the same spaces.

This week, however, the focus is on L.E.V. Matadero. From Thursday and for four days, much of the venue will change its usual programme to become a laboratory for audiovisual creation, electronics and extended realities.