Nothing like an invigorating stay in the heart of the Spanish city to fill up on culture, discover beautiful exhibitions, at the Caixa Forum, the Prado or the Reina Sofia Museum.
As Europe sinks into the greyness of autumn, Madrid seems to be resisting the showers and the drop in temperature. In the heart of the open, bright streets that crisscross the city center, you cycle in a light sweater. We even meet people wearing extravagant sunglasses, that we think have come out of a Dali painting. Madrid has it going for it to vibrate at all hours. The Spanish capital is devilishly welcoming, between nightlife at the Mercado San Miguel and the tapas bars sprinkled with Rioja.
Art, culture and celebration constantly celebrated
Art, culture and celebration are constantly celebrated there. But you shouldn’t miss the eminent Prado Museum, where you can admire the masterpieces of Spanish painting, from the great Goya to Greco and his famous Gentleman with his hand on his chest, including the always extraordinary beauty of the Meninas of Vélasquez.
A stone’s throw away, you can walk in the Retiro garden, the time to take a boat ride on the pond that adorns its center. Water is also present at the bottom of the astonishing Caixa Forum building, located near the Prado. This spectacular establishment immediately catches the eye with its vertical garden, a huge wall of 460 m2 covered with some 15,000 plants. This former Madrid power station, renovated by the architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron in the mid-2000s, opens its doors to ancient, modern and contemporary art as well as to multimedia art.
The incandescence of Delphine Seyrig
Then, towards the Reina Sofia Museum, if only to admire the imposing Guernica by Picasso. On the third floor of the Sabatini building, we discover a surprising exhibition on Delphine Seyrig and the “Muses insoumises” (until March 23) looking back on the beginnings of the feminist movement in France in the 1970s and 1980s. We look at the artistic evolution of the beautiful pasionaria, since Last year in Marienbad Alain Resnais, through the unforgettable Peau d’âne by Jacques Demy, without forgetting her courageous positions and the film projects in which she participated alongside Chantal Akerman, Marguerite Duras, Agnès Varda and Ulrike Ottinger. And, suddenly, we say to ourselves that Madrid was finally the only city capable of revealing the incandescence of Delphine Seyrig …
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