IRENE DE ANDRÉS "Las playas de Madrid"

Galería Juan Silió presents the first solo exhibition in its space of artist Irene de Andrés, whose work is focused on the evolution of the concepts of leisure and free time of the working class. The creation of structures such as discotheques, cruise ships or resorts and the dynamics generated in coastal and tourist environments are part of his work, however, aquatic leisure is not only present in the sea. Thus, in the exhibition “Las playas de Madrid” Irene de Andrés is interested in the river Manzanares and the leisure activities that have been developed around the course through different moments in history.

From the scenes painted by Goya of festivals and dances “on the banks of the Manzanares” where the river is shown as a place of meeting to the current Madrid Río, several time jumps connect different moments of development of the city. Tis act activates the memory of the citizens and its relationship with the river. Sometimes by being present and sometimes by being forgotten, the river marks the history of the city.

Irene de Andrés begins this project in 2019 taking as a starting point the construction of the pool La Isla, designed by Luis Gutiérrez Soto in 1930. This aquatic complex, shaped like an ocean liner, was located in the center of the Manzanares and now serves as an element on which to trace through the use of documentary material, interviews and fieldwork, the relationship of the city with water “over the years”. This research has been expanded to complete a vision in which the river also recovers its voice. To remember those baths is to look again at its waters that relate the history of the city itself far from the great stories, closer to that stream that as Ramón Gómez de la Serna described “is as brief as a lace, but of those laces of magnificent art, and all the threads of its waters are worked and are pure filigree”.

Irene de Andrés (Ibiza, 1986) lives and works in Madrid.

Graduated in Fine Arts by Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2009) where she also cursed the MA in artistic research and production (2010). She’s been artista in residence at Escuela FLORA Ars+Natura, Bogotá AC/E (2016) and The Harbor program in Beta Local, San Juan de Puerto Rico (2017). In 2019 she’s been artista in residence at Matadero Madrid and granted with a fellowship as resident artist at Academia de España in Rome in 2021.

Among the scholarships and awards she has received are the Production Award Blue Project Foundation, Generaciones Fundación Montemadrid, Circuitos de Artes Plásticas, Premio Ciutat de Palma Audiovisual Arts GrantsDKV-Es Baluard. Her work has been shown in instututions an art center such as Espai 13 in Fundación Joan Miró Barcelona, Museo Patio Herreriano inValladolid, MuHKA (Amberes Contemporary Art Museum) or Casa Encendida in Madrid.

IRENE DE ANDRÉS “Las playas de Madrid”