Activity

Madrid has a long and little-known Islamic legacy which is intertwined with the city’s history in a way that challenges the political and media discourses that present Islam and Muslims as unwanted, recent foreign arrivals. Madrid was founded in the eleventh century with the mixed name of Maŷrit and is the only current European capital with Islamic roots.

Its first history was written in Arabic, as were the names of its first known inhabitants. For 220 years, Madrid belonged to the broad Arab-Islamic geographic and cultural space that extended from the Duero River to the Sahara Desert, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indus River. After being conquered and incorporated to the Kingdom of Castile in the late eleventh century, Madrid still had an Islamic presence for 500 more years through its Mudejar, Morisco and slave minorities.

This historical legacy is barely known because the history of Madrid has been recounted in light of its status as the urbs regia, the seat and symbolic embodiment of a power that has been presented as essential and exclusively Catholic and European, which has consequently tended to erase the material and symbolic traces of a past that was considered unsuitable. However, unexpected, subtle phantasmagorias of this past, both tangible and intangible, still exist in Madrid today and even inhabit the icons of Madrid’s identity.

This activity suggests a tour around different spaces of memory to engage in a reflection on the history and memory of Madrid in relation to concepts like identity, alterity, mestizaje and diversity.

Wednesday 19 June. 6-8 pm. Free activity with advance registration. Capacity: 25 people.

Daniel Gil-Benumeya, 1970. He was raised between Rabat and Madrid in a family associated with the imagined and cross-border geography of southern Spain. His academic training is in the field of Arab and Islamic Studies, and outside the academy he was trained in the neighbourhood community of Lavapiés and other areas of Madrid. He is currently a professor in the Department of Linguistics and Oriental Studies at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and scientific coordinator of the Centro de Estudios de Madrid Islámico (CEMI), which is affiliated with the Fundación de Cultura Islámica (FUNCI). His main line of research involves a range of issues associated with the past and present of Islam and populations considered Muslim in Europe. He specifically examines the processes of constructing identity and alterity and the role played by social representations of history and memory in this construction.

Asunción Molinos Gordo and Andrea Pacheco González invite us to accompany them on a special tour of Déjà Vécu, during which they will share some of the research they have done since 2018 which gave rise to this exhibition.

This encounter with the artist and the curator encourages participants to reflect on the traces of the past that still survive today and to question the official narratives about history, cultural hierarchies and the construction of collective identity on the Iberian Peninsula. What has already been lived and what reappears, a concept captured by the title, are the common thread both of the works and of this artist’s inquiry.

The tour will also address Molinos Gordo’s working methodologies and collaboration with other disciplines, such as microbiology, anthropology and the occult sciences. The diverse array of media found in her works—such as installations, drawing, glasswork and video—offer an opportunity to address Spain’s ‘unofficial’ stories through an experience that is both contemplative and critical. In her first solo exhibition in a public institution in Madrid, the artist and curator also examine the exchange with participants in order to assert these stories and their dialogue with the present time.

Dates: Tuesday 30 April 7 pm | Saturday 25 May 12 noon | Saturday 29 June 12 noon.

Capacity: 20 people.

Prior registration free of charge by phoning +34 91 276 02 21 or emailing ca2m@madrid.org
 

These months, the exhibitions will be filled with objects we may hover over, see from above or closer up. We suggest walking among them and under them, touching them and seeing what happens in that encounter.

We encourage you to engage in this collective experience, which is open to all types of groups, on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Each tour will be different, and we’ll make them up as we go.

We may visit Déjà Vécu. What Has Already Been Lived, the exhibition by the artist Asunción Molinos Gordo, where we may wonder what mysteries the flint of Madrid harbours or what the social life inside the microcosm where human intestinal bacteria live is like.

On this collective tour, we may also wander around the different sculptures that Teresa Solar has proposed for the first floor, or go up to the third floor to discover what stories the artist Ana Gallardo has brought back on her journey from Argentina.

The programme is targeted at any type of group: clubs, organisations or school groups.

Register in advance at 912760227 or educacion.ca2m@madrid.org.

We are pleased to partner with Amecum on these tours, which suggest different ways to approach the works of these artists

We invite you to visit the exhibitions in company on Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings. One example is Déjà Vécu, the work by the artist Asunción Molinos Gordo, where you may wonder what mysteries the flint of Madrid harbours or what the social life inside the microcosm where human intestinal bacteria live is like.

You can also learn about the different sculptures that Teresa Solar has proposed for the first floor, or go up to the third floor to discover what stories the artist Ana Gallardo has brought back on her journey from Argentina.

Saturdays at 6:30 pm and Sundays at 12:30 pm. Register in advance by phoning 912760221, emailing ca2m@madrid.org or at the museum’s reception.

We are pleased to partner with Amecum on these tours, which suggest different ways to approach the works of these artists.

María Us is a Guatemalan activist who was a guerilla member during Guatemala’s armed internal conflict between 1960 and 1996.

As the outcome of the partnership between her and the artist Ana Gallardo, we are presenting a play in the form of a biographical act which tells the story of a forest that is both the memory of land struggles and the community’s means of sustenance, in an attempt to disinhibit and publicise the resistance of several generations of female bodies violated by their family members and fellow political activists, too.

MARÍA US

I am a woman with K'iche' roots. I speak my native language. Ever since I remember, I’ve worked the land a lot. I went to primary school in my community. What I remember from primary school: most of the teachers were Latino and they would hit and punish us over anything. And they forced us to study or speak Spanish. I liked to play and run, and I imagined that when I was a bit older, I would go far from my family to study and teach the children of my village. Everything changed when the government of Guatemala began to damage and murder. That was my dream no more. I think that schools should not be enclosed; children should not be inside four walls; they should study in a place where they coexist with nature. Someday I’ll teach children.

Continuing with the line of work that got underway in 2014, El Cine Rev[b]elado is offering a series of activities around audiovisual performance and film’s interrelation with other disciplines. It is an examination of the cinematographic experience beyond the darkened room and the projected image, relating it and transforming it to activate an experience around the audiovisual that questions not only its own language but also its entire structure and conventional logistics.

On 9 February 2014, the first edition of El Cine Rev[b]elado got underway at the CA2M Museum. Ten years later, we are still examining the interrelation between film and other disciplines by proposing a dialogue that rebels against the conventions of traditional cinematography in a constant quest for new revelations that lead us to other places and activate critical thinking.

In this anniversary edition, we are suggesting a reflection on the image itself in terms of its presence and especially its absence, associating it with orality, the word, the text and gesture via four performances by artists who inquire into and work within these contemporary artistic practices.

In 2024, we celebrated one decade and six editions of El Cine Rev[b]elado along with the CA2M Museum and everyone who has attended it, turning this series into a benchmark within the live and performing arts in the Community of Madrid.

Curated by Playtime Audiovisuales (Enrique Piñuel Martín and Natalia Piñuel Martín).

PROGRAMME

Sunday 11 February 6:30 pm ǀ NON-IMAGE: A TALK ABOUT PERCEPTION ǀ David Bestué, Marta Azparren and Haize Lizarazu.

Sunday 18 February 6 pm ǀ WASHINGTON ǀ Matías Daporta.

Sunday 25 February 6:30 pm ǀ FORTY-SIX SECONDS ǀ Los Torreznos.

Sunday 3 March 6:30 pm ǀ THINGS SAID ONCE ǀ Esperanza Collado.

Note: Only the session on 18 February will begin at 6 pm.

Playtime Audiovisuals

This is a Madrid-based cultural management platform founded by Natalia Piñuel and Enrique Piñuel in 2007 which is devoted to contemporary artistic practices. They undertake curatorial projects for art centres and cultural institutions like the Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Azkuna Zentroa, MUSAC, Instituto Cervantes, Centro Cultural de España en México and Tabakalera. They have also worked as programmers for film and music festivals like (S8) Mostra de Cinema Periférico de A Coruña, Festival de Jóvenes Realizadores de Granada, Actual de Logroño and Experimenta Club de Madrid.

Their most prominent projects include ‘Visiones contemporáneas - últimas tendencias del cine y el vídeo en España’ (Contemporary visions – latest trends in film and video in Spain) at Domus Artium 2002 (DA2) in Salamanca since 2013; the multidisciplinary festival ‘She Makes Noise’ at Madrid’s La Casa Encendida since 2015, which disseminates the role of women and nonbinary identities in electronic music and audiovisual experimentation; and the performance biennial ‘El Cine Rev[b]elado’ at the Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo in Móstoles since 2014. They co-founded ‘L.A. OLA’, the contemporary Spanish film festival sited in Los Angeles, New York and Mexico City from 2015 to 2018. They also worked as independent film distributors for twelve years. They regularly contribute to different media and work as teachers.

AUTUMN 2024

It’s time to get our hands dirty to understand, on-site, what it means to keep soil alive. In this series, we’re going to teach you how to cultivate your own organic garden while also sharing tips and useful practices so you can make the most of its potential in the city and make our day-to-day lives more sustainable. We’ll begin by taking out the summer crops to make room for the autumn-winter ones.

Friday 20 September. Introduction to regenerative agriculture. 11:30 am to 1:30 pm

Our farm soils are increasingly degraded, and now’s the time to begin understanding how the earth that feeds our plants works in order to help to improve its fertility in our crops.

Friday 27 September. Hands dirty. 11:30 am to 1:30 pm

It’s time to get our hands dirty to understand, on-site, what it means to keep soil alive. Plus we’ll begin to take out the summer crops in order to make room for the autumn-winter ones. In this series, we’ll teach you how to grow your own organic garden while also sharing tips and useful practices so you can make so you can make the most of its potential in the city and make our day-to-day lives more sustainable.

Friday 4 October. Know your soil. 11:30 am to 1:30 pm

In this workshop, we’ll share tips about what our soil is like and what we can do to improve its fertility.

Friday 11 October. Seed harvest. 11:30 am to 1:30 pm

Growing our own seeds is a good way to protect biodiversity and not depend on having to buy them every year. We’ll offer advice on how to harvest and store seeds so you can use them next year.

Friday 18 October. Autumn planting. 11:30 am to 1:30 pm

We’ll grow what we have decided together to plant so they can begin offering their yields in the upcoming months and we can enjoy healthy, ecological, local produce.

Friday 25 October. Let’s make recycled paper. 11:30 am to 1:30 pm

But it’s not just any paper; it’ll be paper that you can plant to sow life after you use it.

Friday 8 November. Superstitions and beliefs about wild herbs. 11:30 am to 1:30 pm

Weeds versus herbs that cure. How much do we know about the properties and culture of harvesting the herbs that grow around us?

Friday 15 November. Moss-graffiti. 11:30 am to 1:30 pm

We’ll paint with the moss growing in Móstoles to decorate our walls.

Friday 22 November. Pottery for indoor plants I. 11:30 am to 1:30 pm

Let’s spark your creativity through clay to create self-watering pots for your favourite plants.

Friday 29 November. Pottery for indoor plants II. 11:30 am to 1:30 pm

We’ll finish our crafts and learn how to use our clay pots.

Friday 13 December. Christmas arrangements and wreaths. 11:30 am to 1:30 pm

We’ll make Christmas decorations to bedeck our houses during Christmastime using plastic-free materials.
 

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THE VEGETABLE GARDEN IN THE CENTRE

The spring planting season is beginning, and the possibilities are infinite. In this series, we’ll teach you how to grow your own organic garden while also sharing useful tips and practices to make the most of its potential in the city and make our day-to-day lives more sustainable.

Friday 5 April. Planting flowers in the garden. 11:30 am—1:30 pm

We aren’t always aware of how valuable flowers are in a vegetable garden, not only because of their unique aesthetics but also because of their medicinal properties and the importance of introducing them into our organic gardens to support our crops’ development.

Friday 12 April. Spring planting. 11:30 am—1:30 pm

Now that we’ve designed what we want to plant, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty.

Friday 19 April. Planting and reproducing herbs. 11:30 am—1:30 pm

Another major ally in the vegetable garden is herbs. In this session, we’ll learn how to care for them, reproduce them and use them for both our own benefit and their usefulness in the garden.

Friday 26 April. Let’s make our own fertiliser. 11:30 am—1:30 pm

What’s an organic garden without a few basic lessons on how to make compost? Compost is essential to our plants’ growth and a key point in making a sustainable vegetable garden.

Friday 9 May. Natural remedies against pests and diseases in the garden. 11:30 am—1:30 pm

It’s important to know how to prevent problems in the garden that could ruin your harvest, along with possible ways to deal with them in organic farming.

Friday 17 May. Cleaning without toxins. 11:30 am—1:30 pm

Our home is where we spend the most time over the course of the day, so it’s important to pay attention to the type of products we use to clean it to avoid accumulations of toxic products.

Friday 24 May. Wax wrappers. 11:30 am—1:30 pm

Continuing with the theme of sustainable homes, we’re offering a practical workshop to learn how to make wrappers that replace the typical tin foil or plastic wrap. Come try it and see how you’ll fall in love with this simple technique.

Friday 31 May. Do we know how to recycle? 11:30 am—1:30 pm

By now, recycling has been part of our lives for decades, but do we really know how to recycle each product we want to throw away?

Summer Cutting Exchange. 5 June. 6—8 pm

In this Cutting Exchange session, not only can you bring your small indoor plants, as always, but we also want to encourage you to bring garden flowers to exchange as well.

Friday 7 June. The garden in the summer. 11:30 am—1:30 pm

It is becoming harder and harder to deal with heat waves in our vegetable gardens. In this workshop, we’ll give you a few tips so that your garden yields the bounty you want without drying up along the way.

Friday 14 June. Solar lunch. 11:30 am—1:30 pm

As always, we’ll finish the year with a very special farewell meal. We’ll cook in our solar kitchens and enjoy a pleasant picnic with zero energy expenditure.

Xisela García Moure has been putting farming and sustainability techniques into practice in the city for more than ten years. A member of the Instituto de Transición Rompe el Círculo and a resident of Móstoles, she is aware of our city’s possibilities and interests. An expert in organic farming and permaculture, she has worked in different estates and urban agriculture projects, and this year she aims to put her knowledge into practice by focusing on a greener Móstoles that is more aware of this great town’s needs.

The possibilities afforded by learning about the nature around us include more than just growing our own food. These months, we’ll explore local plants to learn what benefits we can gain from them and to make our own everyday items by collecting and transforming them.

Friday 19 January.  Kokedama. Bring it from there to here. 11:30 am—1:30 pm

Kokedama is a Japanese technique of keeping plants at home without pots. In addition to being a beautiful way to keep plants indoors, they also offer us the chance to learn more about our flora and how to care for them.

Friday 26 January. Hanging plants. A macramé workshop. 11:30 am—1:30 pm

We plant lovers like to fill as many spaces as possible with greenery. Hanging plants are a good way to fill places that would otherwise be out of reach. Learn how to make hanging pots with macramé, and along the way learn a bit more about how to care for creeping or hanging plants.

Friday 2 February. Art to ‘dye’ for[AS1] . Understanding natural dyes. 11:30 am—1:30 pm

One way or another, the majority of colours we know of come from the flora around us. This is a fun way to make prints using a very simple technique for creating decorations with plant motifs.

Friday 9 February. Soap workshop. Care for your skin while caring for the planet. 11:30 am—1:30 pm

This is a simple workshop where you can make your own soap using natural materials and learn about homemade natural cosmetics.

Friday 16 February. Candles and air fresheners. Another way of viewing our home. 11:30 am—1:30 pm

Learn more about the properties of plants, this time with a look indoors. After all, that’s where we spend most of the day, so it should be a safe, toxin-free space.

Understanding where our food comes from and how it is produced is the first step towards a healthy, sustainable diet. Join us and learn how to make seedbeds and different organic farming techniques.

Friday 8 March. Drop by drop. 11:30 am—1:30 pm

It may not seem like it, but the time of year when water is increasingly scarce is approaching, so we have to use piped water to water our crops. Learning techniques to lower the amount of water needed for plants helps to lessen the hydric stress on our environment during the summertime.

Friday 15 March. A garden in the city. 11:30 am—1:30 pm

This workshop will answer questions and teach you how to grow plants in the city, an artificial system where we can all do our part to make it as natural as possible.

Wednesday 20 March. SPRING CUTTINGS. Exchange of vegetable seeds 6—8 pm

In addition to being able to bring your indoor plants, as always, at this cutting session we want to expand the possibilities by sharing vegetable seeds and seedlings for those who like growing their own food. Plus, we’ll also hold a mini-workshop on vegetable gardens on terraces.

Xisela García Moure has been putting farming and sustainability techniques into practice in the city for more than ten years. A member of the Instituto de Transición Rompe el Círculo (Break the Circle Transition Institute) and a resident of Móstoles, she is aware of our city’s possibilities and interests. As an expert in organic farming and permaculture, she has worked on different estates and urban farm projects, and this year she aims to put her knowledge into practice by committing to a greener Móstoles that is more aware of this large town’s needs.