THE EDITORIAL
This is the week Madrid lets you in. Palaces, convents and an artist's studio open their doors for free, a company the world knows from a single piece of choreography dances it in the city's grandest theatre, and two of the century's most curious minds share a gallery for the first time. It takes an evening, a reservation and a good pair of shoes.
We've been through the calendar so you don't have to. Here's what's worth your week.
AT A GLANCE
Worth the reservation: the last days of Madrid Otra Mirada, and Okuda San Miguel's own studio.
Worth the ticket: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Teatro Real, until Sunday.
Worth the opening night: El universo freudiano de Dalí opens at the Thyssen on Tuesday.
Worth the Friday: sixty years of Spanish art open for free at the Juan March.
THE WEEKLY CURATION
CULTURE
THE EVENT: Madrid Otra Mirada (MOM), including Factory of Dreams, Okuda San Miguel's studio
WHERE: 205 sites across Madrid, headlined by the Palacio Real de El Pardo, the Colegiata de San Isidro and the Monasterio de la Encarnación. Factory of Dreams is in Usera
WHEN: Until Sunday 18 October. Factory of Dreams: guided visits Thursday 15 October at 18:00 and 19:00 (40 minutes), lettering workshop Friday 16 October at 18:00 (1 hour), kids' mural workshop Saturday 17 October at 11:30 (ages 5 to 10)
PRICE: Free, advance registration required, limited places
Madrid Otra Mirada enters its final days, and Okuda San Miguel opens the studio where his murals are made
In its fourteenth edition and first seven-day format, MOM opens 205 spaces with 249 free activities. The three headline buildings are the royal palace of El Pardo, the Colegiata de San Isidro on Calle Toledo and the cloistered Monasterio de la Encarnación beside the Palacio Real. Registration for activities with reserved places opened on 29 September, so the best slots are likely gone, but it is worth checking the site for what remains.
The sleeper pick is Factory of Dreams, Okuda San Miguel's permanent studio, which opens exceptionally this week: a guided tour of the workshop and showroom on Thursday, a street art and lettering workshop on Friday where you design something to take home, and a collective mural session for children on Saturday.
The Edit Move
Open the booking site and filter for the days you have left rather than the buildings you want. A less famous address with a free place beats a famous one you can't get into.
For who it is
Anyone who has lived in Madrid long enough to wonder what's behind the doors they walk past.
For who it is not
Anyone planning to turn up without a reservation, nearly every activity requires one.
DANCE
THE EVENT: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
WHERE: Teatro Real, Plaza de Isabel II
WHEN: Opens Wednesday 14 October, runs to 18 October. 19:30, Saturday matinee 12:30, Sunday 18:00
PRICE: From 37€
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater opens its Madrid run at the Teatro Real for the first time in years
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater brings two programmes to the Real under new artistic director Alicia Graf Mack: one built around Ailey's own choreography alongside Ronald K. Brown, the other around recent commissions from Mehdi Walerski, Judith Jamison, Lar Lubovitch and Jamar Roberts. Both close with Revelations, the 1960 piece built on African American spirituals that the company has performed continuously for over sixty years, and that most people who've never seen Ailey live will still recognise the second it starts. This is the significant dance booking of the whole month, a globally touring American company most Madrid audiences only ever see in festival clips getting a full week on the city's most serious stage.
The Edit Move
Book whichever programme includes Revelations if you can only manage one night, but if two nights are realistic, take one of each, the contrast between Ailey's own choreography and the newer commissions is the actual story of where this company is right now.
For who it is
Anyone who wants to see a company most people only know from clips of Revelations perform live, in a room built for exactly this scale of work.
For who it is not
Anyone wanting a short evening: both programmes run close to two hours with two intermissions.
FLAMENCO
THE EVENT: Andrés Marín, Desierto; Karime Amaya, Carmen; Chano Domínguez, Piano Sólo
WHERE: Teatros del Canal, Sala Verde (Marín, Amaya) and Sala Negra (Domínguez), Cea Bermúdez 1
WHEN: Thursday 15 October 20:30 (Marín); Sunday 18 October 19:30 (Amaya); Tuesday 20 October 18:00 (Domínguez)
PRICE: Marín 25€, 20€ or 9€ depending on seat; Amaya 20€, 18€ or 9€; Domínguez 20€
Suma Flamenca's first full week: three nights worth choosing between
The 21st Suma Flamenca runs under the theme Flamencas, with 47 galas and 33 premieres. Andrés Marín brings Desierto to Madrid for the first time, a poetic reconstruction of Seville's historic Alameda de Hércules. Karime Amaya, granddaughter of the Amaya dynasty, presents Carmen in its Madrid premiere. Chano Domínguez, the pianist who has spent a career moving between jazz and flamenco, plays solo on an early evening Tuesday.
The Edit Move
Choose one night rather than all three. Marín is the most experimental, Amaya the most theatrical, Domínguez the quietest and the cheapest.
For who it is
Flamenco followers who want the festival's premieres rather than a safe repertory night.
For who it is not
Anyone looking for a traditional tablao evening, none of these three is that.
THEATRE
THE EVENT: Los huesos, directed by Manuela Infante
WHERE: Teatro María Guerrero, Sala Grande, Calle Tamayo y Baus 4
WHEN: Thursday 15 to Saturday 17 October at 20:00; Sunday 18 October at 12:00. About 1 hour 30 minutes
PRICE: 12€ to 25€
Los huesos: a forensic anthropologist, the people she identifies, and a conversation between the living and the dead
The Chilean director Manuela Infante, with writers Michael De Cock and Marcela Salinas, follows R. L., a South American forensic anthropologist and expert in bone trauma who spends her career identifying victims of forced disappearance. The piece is built around memory, science and music, and around the need to keep a conversation going between the living and the dead. It's a Centro Dramático Nacional production, in Spanish.
The Edit Move
Take the Sunday midday performance if the subject feels heavy for an evening out, it makes it easier to talk through over lunch afterwards.
For who it is
Anyone who wants to see how contemporary Latin American theatre stages memory and loss.
For who it is not
Anyone without conversational Spanish, there is no mention of surtitles.
MUSIC
THE EVENT: Carmen Villain + More Eaze, Soundset Series
WHERE: Auditorio, Contemporánea Condeduque, Calle Conde Duque 9 and 11
WHEN: Friday 16 October, 20:00 PRICE: 18€
Carmen Villain and More Eaze open Condeduque's experimental electronic season
The Norwegian-Mexican composer and multi-instrumentalist Carmen Villain, whose sound sits between heavy dub rhythm and the open atmospheres of "Fourth World" music, presents material from her latest album, Memoria. She shares the bill with More Eaze, the Brooklyn-based project of Mari Maurice, which runs from ambient pop to folk and musique concrète. It is the first date of this season's Soundset Series.
The Edit Move
Listen to Memoria once on the way there, so that the live version has something to open up against.
For who it is
Anyone who follows experimental electronic music and wants it in a proper auditorium.
For who it is not
Anyone expecting a club night.
ART
THE EVENT: La transición estética. España, 1960-2020
WHERE: Fundación Juan March, Calle de Castelló 77
WHEN: Opens Friday 16 October, runs to 10 January 2027. Monday to Saturday and holidays 10:00 to 20:00; Sunday 10:00 to 14:00
PRICE: Free
La transición estética: sixty years of Spanish art open for free at the Juan March
A visual walk through Spanish art from the 1960s to 2020, framed around how the public encountered it and how exhibiting itself changed along the way. The Juan March is known for rigorous shows with no admission charge, and it opens on a Friday, so the first weekend is the natural moment.
The Edit Move
Walk it backwards, starting from 2020, and see where the country started changing.
For who it is
Anyone who knows Picasso and Miró and little that came after.
For who it is not
Anyone who wants one artist rather than a survey.
MUSIC
THE EVENT: Freedom First, Keith LaMar and Albert Marquès
WHERE: Sala Villanos, Calle de Bernardino Obregón 18, Arganzuela
WHEN: Sunday 18 October, 17:00. Doors 16:30
PRICE: From 15€
Freedom First: poetry written on death row, played over live jazz
Keith LaMar spent more than two decades on death row in Ohio. His poems, written from inside that experience, are performed live over the music of the Catalan pianist Albert Marquès. It's part of the Villanos del Jazz strand, in a room small enough that the words arrive without distance.
The Edit Move
Read a little about the case before going, it changes how the whole hour lands.
For who it is
Anyone who wants jazz and poetry carrying something real.
For who it is not
Anyone looking for a light Sunday, this is heavy material, played straight.
HISTORY
THE EVENT: Madrid entre épocas, photomontages by Andrés Valentín Pérez Serén
WHERE: Museo de Historia de Madrid, Patio Dorado, Calle de Fuencarral 78
WHEN: Closes Sunday 18 October. Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 20:00
PRICE: Free
Madrid entre épocas: forty old photographs of the city, lined up with the same view today
The Museo de Historia is always marvellous. This exhibition pairs forty historical photographs with images of the same corners of Madrid today, in its Patio Dorado. There is little text to read: the city simply lines up with itself.
The Edit Move
Find the montage closest to where you live, then walk to that corner on your way home.
For who it is
Anyone who has lived here long enough to miss something that's gone.
For who it is not
Anyone wanting a large, dense history exhibition.
ART
THE EVENT: El universo freudiano de Dalí
WHERE: Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Paseo del Prado 8
WHEN: Opens Tuesday 20 October, runs to 24 January 2027. Tuesday to Friday and Sunday 10:00 to 19:00, Saturday 10:00 to 23:00, Monday 12:00 to 16:00
PRICE: 14€ general, 10€ reduced. Free Mondays 12:00 to 16:00 and Saturdays 21:00 to 23:00
El universo freudiano de Dalí opens at the Thyssen
With 136 works and curated by Jaime Brihuega, the show builds around Dalí's lifelong fascination with Sigmund Freud, one of the engines behind his paranoiac-critical method rather than a footnote to it. A lecture series on Wednesdays from 28 October to 25 November brings Ian Gibson, Juan José Lahuerta and others.
The Edit Move
Read a little of Freud on dreams beforehand, the show rewards it.
For who it is
Anyone who has exhausted the usual Dalí greatest hits and wants the argument underneath.
For who it is not
Anyone wanting a broad career retrospective.
CULTURE
THE EVENT: Teatro de grandeza. Arte, arquitectura y ciudad en el Madrid Barroco
WHERE: Sala de Exposiciones, Fernán Gómez Centro Cultural de la Villa, Plaza de Colón 4
WHEN: Opens Tuesday 20 October, runs to 17 January 2027. Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 20:00, closed Mondays
PRICE: To be announced by the venue
Teatro de grandeza: more than 180 works on baroque Madrid, most never shown before
Curated by Delfín Rodríguez Ruiz and Fernando Checa Cremades, the exhibition covers the art, architecture and urban planning of 16th to 18th century Madrid at its height as a court city. Loans come from the Museo de Historia, the Archivo de Villa, the Biblioteca Nacional, the Prado and the Thyssen among others, and it is the centrepiece of the council's Madrid Barroco programme.
The Edit Move
Afterwards, walk to the Plaza Mayor and the Casa de la Panadería. The buildings you've just seen in drawings are still standing.
For who it is
Anyone who walks through the Austrias every day and wants to know who built it.
For who it is not
Anyone who wants paintings rather than plans and elevations.
ON THE HORIZON
Aqua Mater, Sebastião Salgado's first major exhibition since his death, opens at Fundación Canal on 28 October.
Depedro presents Furia y Calma over five nights at Sala Villanos from 27 October.
Día de Muertos reaches its date at Casa de México on 1 and 2 November.
Seen something in Madrid this week that should have made the list? Reply to [email protected] and tell us. We read everything, and the best tips end up here.
The Edit Madrid is an independent weekly curation of the best things to do in the city. No sponsored content. No filler. Just the things worth your time.
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