ARQUITECTURAS IMAGINADAS. PARALLEL PROGRAM TERRITORY CITY. ART MADRID'25

Four artists have been invited to intervene in various stations of two of the busiest subway lines in Madrid, with the aim of transforming these subway spaces through different aesthetic languages. The main challenge will be to develop projects that connect in a meaningful way with travelers, turning these stations into inspiring places full of beauty.

This program highlights how art has the power to sensitize and change our perception of our surroundings. The proposal not only seeks to enrich the experience of those who use public transport, but also to promote a reflection on the importance of public space. In particular, the Madrid Metro is presented as a key space for urban mobility and social interaction, and this project aims to foster a greater appreciation for it without falling into a paternalistic approach, but through an educational proposal that invites collective reflection.

Araceli López. Courtesy of the artist.

Invited Artist: Araceli López

Between being and being we have built a wall.

Location: LÍNEA 1 (recorrido entre CUATRO CAMINOS y PACÍFICO)

Time: 18:00 - 20:00h

Between being and being we have built a wall is an action that analyzes how, in each generation, the boundaries between the individual and the collective are altered, transformed, and redrawn according to the circumstances. Between these two poles, contradiction becomes our constant companion. We are beings capable of distancing ourselves from ourselves, of getting lost in the space between what we are and what we show the world.

The performative action stands as the bridge that crosses this contradiction, a space where opposites are not antagonistic but elements that coexist and feed into each other. The action seeks to unify being and being, merging these two dimensions into an experience that goes beyond the verbal and the tangible.

The Spanish language, with its distinction between ‘ser’ and ‘estar,’ turns this duality into a powerful tool for exploring human nature. The ‘ser,’ intangible, elusive, unreachable, cannot be defined with precision. It is something that transcends the limits of words, something that resists being trapped in a fixed concept. Being is the truth that is never fully grasped; it is the ungraspable that dwells deep within our being.

On the other hand, ‘estar’ is something more tangible, a state that can be located in time and space. ‘Estar’ is presence, action, rest; it is what we see, what manifests in an instant. It is a continuous dialogue with the environment, the language shared by a culture, by a generation. ‘Estar’ is the visible, the present, what can be touched and understood within its limits.

The performative action seeks to unravel and make visible that dissociation, turning it into a palpable space. In this realm, ‘estar’ becomes a stage, the space where ‘ser’ can manifest freely, without the limits of what can be named, labeled, or immediately understood. In this space, what is seen is not a faithful representation of what we are, but a distorted reflection, a personal interpretation of being through the eyes of the other.

The performative act, by staging this contradiction, invites the spectator to inhabit that ambiguity and question the borders between what is and what is, between what we are and what we show.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Araceli López is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and cultural manager born in Madrid, with a background in audiovisual language and contemporary dance. She began her studies in Pre-Press and continued with Communication Technologies, specializing in the Expert Degree in 3D Studio Max. She has trained in contemporary dance at schools in Madrid such as Descalzinha Danza, Amor de Dios, and Bambú Danza. Her work explores the understanding and deconstruction of reality, reinterpreting it through various expressive languages. She seeks to combine these languages to foster communication and synergies between them. Focused on the coding, conversion, and translation of ideas, her main approach is to transfer concepts from one language to another. As expressive media, she uses the body, words, drawing, painting, and audiovisual language.

She has collaborated in various radio programs, collectives, festivals, and artistic projects such as the James Joyce Lacanian Circle, CRUCE Contemporary Art and Thought, Ésta es una PLAZA!, PEPA Performance, PROYECTOR/Plataforma de Videoart, OMCRadio, and the radio station of the National University of Colombia (UNIMEDIOS), contributing dance-performance pieces, visual art, poetry, photography, and audiovisual works, as well as serving as a coordinator and part of the curatorial team. After writing for several blogs, she published the poetry collections Mirar o parecido (2018) and El agua y el cuello – Poesía de emergencia (2022). In 2023, she was included in the book El Escorial: Antología Lírica desde el siglo XVI al año 2023. She is a co-founder and active member of the artistic collectives CONJUNTAS P-r-y-c-t-s, alongside Denisse Nadeau, and LAC, a group dedicated to interdisciplinary improvisation formed in 2020, along with artists such as Wade Mathews, Blanca Regina, Mario G. Cru, Gary Hill, and Proyecto Chilco.