La Ciudad en Viñetas

Across the hall from its beautiful exhibition of Spanish fashion design, which I wrote about here, is centrocentro's showcase of enormous comic strip cartoons about Madrid, La Ciudad en Viñetas ("The city in cartoons").

Every two months, a new artist supplies the comic strip panels, especially commissioned for the project, with their own graphic narrative of Madrid life and its people.

It's currently the turn of the Pacheco sisters, Carmen and Laura, with their very helpful Guia de Peligros de Madrid para Criaturas de Provincias ("Guide to the Dangers of Madrid for Creatures from the Provinces").

With witty illustrations, they warn out-of-towners of the dangers of relying on the metro, of getting lost amongst the ghosts in the streets, and of falling in love with a madrileño...

"If I wasn't a madrileño, I would die."

But the absolute worst thing you could do?  Leave Madrid and escape to the other side of the world...

...only to miss it when you've gone.

http://www.centrocentro.org/centro/exposicion_ficha/29



Cazadores de tendencias

A sunny Saturday morning, waiting to be called into work (it's the waiting that's the worst), I popped into the jaw-droppingly beautiful Palacio de Cibeles, once the home of the Spanish postal service, now the centrocentro cultural centre.  Just in time to catch one of the final few days of its exhibition, ¿Cazadores de tendencias? (or "trendspotters") - Essential names of Spanish fashion.

The exhibition was an A to Z of the 67 biggest names in Spanish fashion, beautifully laid out along the oranate interior of the palace.

Spanish fashion is famous the world over.  But until seeing this exhibition, I hadn't realised just how many of fashion's biggest names orignated in Spain.  It ran from famous names like Aldolfo Domínguez through to less-internationally known Victorio&Lucchino, via Ágatha Ruiz de la Prada, Loewe and, of course, Balenciaga.

Adolfo Domínguez (left): "Designer clothing has to provoke emotions.  Simplicity with a breath of poetry." Josep Font (right): "Fashion is a means to reinterpret the world on my own terms." Sybilla Photograph: Juan Gatti, Madrid 2012 You may not agree with Adolfo and Josep, but the exhibition showcased some stunning photography and the best of Spanish design: classic and timeless, yet with its own eccentricity. But despite the beauty and intrigue in every photograph on display, somehow the setting itself stole the show...

www.centrocentro.org