CA2M: hidden contemporary art in Móstoles

In the heart of Mostoles, in a pedestrian area full of traditional textile shops and multiple cafeterias with lively terraces, rises a modern building in an aqua green tone that is accessed through a wide entrance lined with steel that you do not expect. It is precisely the unexpectedness of this find, due to its location and its nature, which makes the Dos de Mayo Art Center (CA2M) in Móstoles an unknown piece of the artistic ecosystem of the Community of Madrid.

Manuel Segade (La Coruña, 1977), director of CA2M since 2015, explains that “unlike other centers that are in the capital, such as the Reina Sofía Museum, La Casa Encendida or Matadero, for example, we are a space that we have the task of conserving, safeguarding, producing and thinking about current art, but also about the art that will come in the future ”. This is by no means a trivial detail, since CA2M houses a very important artistic collection of young living creators who find a living space in which to experiment, iterate and innovate.

“This building houses the collection of contemporary art of the Community of Madrid that began in the 1980s with the Statute of Autonomy; but, in addition, it has another essential collection in Spanish contemporary art, that of the ARCO Foundation, works that are acquired at the ARCO Fair in Madrid every year and that stimulate the presence of international works in our collections ”, explains Segade.

A collection that also grows in number each edition of ARCO. Specifically, this 2021 the Community of Madrid has bought art worth 130,000 euros from the artists Isidoro Valcárcel Medina, Ana Buenaventura and Cristina Iglesias.

Permanent movement and relationship with present art

CA2M is an entity in permanent movement. According to Segade, it is a living space that is renewed, that experiences and that innovates to transform the cultural and exhibition offer of the region. “We do the work of preserving and disseminating the collection that we have, which, of course, is available to any other public and private center in our country, since we are in continuous exchange and movement of the pieces,” he says.

But, in addition to all this, CA2M also dedicates themselves to making exhibitions of the present where the artists themselves have the floor and this, the director details, creates a very special relationship both with the space and with the organization of CA2M. “We are a museum very open to the practices of the artists themselves, since they are always inventing new things. All disciplines or experimentations around performance, living arts with one’s own body, sound art, plastic art, exhibition cinema, etc. have a place here ”, he clarifies.

Positive sociocultural impact in Móstoles

Another purpose of the multiple activities of CA2M is to attract an audience that grows every day, despite the possible misunderstanding around contemporary art or performance art, and to have a real and positive impact on the community. where it operates.

Along these lines, Segade explains, in this museum we can find from “an orchard on the terrace in which the elderly from Móstoles who arrived in the 60s from rural areas work, to a group under 21 of adolescents who work with us throughout the year. year to program activities for other adolescents and help us get closer to those things that they want or like today and that I do not know ”.

The CA2M is, in short, deeply rooted in its environment and that has also made it one of the few museums in the Community of Madrid that has not lost public in the pandemic because its people are, above all, local . In addition, and this is something that Segade underlines on several occasions, all the activities that take place within the building are free and with very long opening hours.

“All of this allows for a very strong local impact, which is unusual because there is no building of these characteristics that is so large and there is no such powerful cultural institution outside the capital’s surroundings. There are almost 4,000 square meters of positive space that really make it a cultural and social behemoth ”, he clarifies.

Just 20 minutes from the center of Madrid

Regarding the handicap of the location of the CA2M in Móstoles, outside the most official circuit of art that moves in the center of Madrid, Segade argues that “the context, although we must take it into account, can also be transformed. When this museum began to be built, for example, the Madrid elite of the cultural world thought that it was a mistake to make such a center in the periphery because they said it would not work. And, look, in the end it turns out that the 20-minute train ride from the center doesn’t cost anyone anything and this museum has about 100,000 visitors throughout each year, which is a very reasonable number of visits for a public space of these characteristics ” .

But, in addition, they want to bring present art to everyone and to do so without fear or prejudice. “We try to have a low institutional framework. In other words, when you enter this museum, even if it is free, you do not have to take a ticket, nor do you have to register your name or zip code, nor do you have to go through a security arch ”, he explains.

And it is true, you enter and enjoy, in the space you can breathe a very free atmosphere. For this reason, says the director, “on the terrace there are kids who come to trap dance in the afternoons in winter, it is a place where people can come with food and have a drink on the terrace quietly without visiting the rest of the museum. We want people to be able to use museums in an open way and for contemporary art to feel like something we shouldn’t be afraid of ”.

And he adds: “The peripheral situation of this museum allows us to experiment in a way that later, curiously, other museums adopt as the norm. Many of our experiments, successes or failures, say, become patterns that other places then follow other centers. If this museum were a genre of literature, it would undoubtedly be science fiction, while, for example, the Prado Museum is a realist 19th century novel that is also what it has to be ”.

‘Dialecto CA2M’, the super show of four floors

CA2M is carrying out architectural remodeling works to multiply the impact of its activity. “We are doing the project with Andrés Jaque, who is straddling Madrid and New York, and is an architect who is currently in Princeton and is one of the fathers of the new architecture in the world. He is 45 years old, he is young, and he has an enormous level of influence. We are very proud”.

Once the project is finished, explains Segade, a super show will be inaugurated that will occupy the four floors under the name ‘Dialecto CA2M’. “He will speak precisely of the great variety that we have, of that peripheral accent compared to the official account. It will begin in the 1920s, that is, there will be Picasso or Sonia Delaunay, and we will come to the present, artists born even in the 1990s. We hope that it will be the starting point for many more projects ”, he concludes.

Direct and lead the CA2M project

The tone, the calm and, above all, how he conveys the plans he has for CA2M shows that Segade has clear ideas and a very international vision of spaces dedicated to contemporary art. “It is a privileged place, a delicious space that allows you to be working on a day-to-day basis, to be in continuous relationship with both the public and the staff. In other museums, for example, you do not have this ability to be working at all levels of activity because they are very large or because there is a great distance between the hierarchy of management and that of the street ”, he comments.

Therefore, Segade concludes, “it is a pleasure to be the director of CA2M because it is allowing me to apply all the knowledge and experiences of living outside of Spain and to show that, even if you are in Móstoles or in the center of Madrid, what matters is the program that you do and the corrections that you can establish ”.

More information: www.turismomadrid.es