Madrid as Performance Art

We were in Madrid for a day and a half. The city is one big piece of artwork. The buildings, the food, the gardens and the crowds of people moving along the streets and through the tapa bars make it a living piece of performance art.

It has a different feel from Barcelona. Mike and I talked about how our impressions of Madrid differs from Barcelona. Madrid seems more open and airy. The streets are wide and squares are everywhere. The buildings are uniformly sumptuous in their design street after street. I thought that Barcelona had lots of public art but that was before we saw Madrid. Let’s start with paintings. We started at the Prado the minute we arrived since it was closed the next day. It’s possible to spend hours and hours there but we ran out of steam early. A dozen or so Velasquez and Goya paintings and we were full. Sorry to disappoint all the art lovers (Wil) but sore feet and growling stomachs won out. It was a warm, (finally!) sunny day and we had fruit, cheese, and Iberico (pigs fed entirely on acorns) ham with us from a wonderful market in Barcelona. We had a perfect afternoon picnic and nap on the lawn of the Prado. I love days like that!

The next day we went to the Renia Sophia Museum. I liked it better than the Prado probably because the building was a little easier to navigate and the art more contemporary – at least the part that we saw. The highlight was Picasso’s Guernica. There’s no way to express in words the power, grief and horror that he communicated through this painting. It was moving as well as educational to see so his studies for the final painting. Of course, there were more paintings by Miro and Dali – again, too much to take in. And that’s just art through the medium of paint.

Sculptures literally dot the landscape across the city. They are on buildings, part of the fountains, and in museums. And of course, sculptures are throughout the parks which are themselves works of art. Gardens are integrated throughout the city and not little wimpy gardens. El Retiro, for example, was huge and included a crystal palace set on a lake. It was lovely in the early morning light. (By the way, Madrid sleeps in as well. There was no one in Starbucks at 8AM!) I was impressed with the foresight of establishing such a big park in the city center and investing in the landscaping at this grand scale. The Prado Museum sits along the Avenue Prado. It is a piece of landscape architecture, too. The lanes are separated by a wide landscaped median with a forest of huge trees. You can walk down the center of the busy street and feel that you are in a peaceful place – well, almost.

Let’s move on to music and dance. This past weekend was a big celebration for the patron saint of Madrid, marked with little celebrations throughout the city. Consequently, we stumbled on several groups (dance clubs, maybe) dancing on street corners outfitted in traditional dress. Most were much older couples all decked out (Mike says they were even older than him). They were so cute! The women were wearing Spanish shawls and the fringe on shawls were flying as they twirled! In another spot, a stage was set up for a performance at 10PM (we didn’t make that). But before, they played recorded Spanish music of different types. People were packed on the dance floor doing the cha cha cha, paseo doble, and rumba.



Food became art as well. Tapas bars displayed an enticing array of beautiful, mini dishes. There were deeply colored hams, tiny fish in oil, bright red pimentos, black and green olives and more. It was hard to choose! Lastly were the street performance “artists.” You know the ones. These are the people who pretend to be statues or who dress up to have their picture taken with tourists. Our favorite was pudgy Spider Man!

We left Madrid early for Arcos de la Frontera and the white villages of southern Spain. More on that later. But, finally, a last word from our Barcelona experience. We went to hear Manuel Gonzalez play the Spanish guitar at the Barcelona music palace. It was fabulous! Their music palace is stunning with intricate designs of mosaics, stained glass and sculpture. But the music…..there was one man on the stage with his guitar. The sound was almost ethereal. It was a solitary sound like it was meant to be heard sitting under the stars in the country on a dark evening. We sat transfixed with the cadences, rhythms and trills of the guitar floating through the air. It’s amazing how music and art add depth to our experiences. It makes every day feel like a performance.