You probably already know CentroCentro, a cultural space belonging to the Madrid City Council, whose headquarters is located in the Palacio de Cibeles, is a very active enclave in the cultural life of the city through its rich agenda of different exhibitions and activities for locals and visitors to enjoy.
It now presents the exhibition No va a quedar nada de todo esto, an exhibition that pays tribute to the city’s commerce and in which you can see more than 150 commercial signs compiled over the last seven years, as well as examples of graphics on other media, such as napkins, labels and tissue paper.
The Paco Graco collective composed of Alberto Nanclares, Mercedes Moral, Guillermo Borreguero and Zuloark, is in charge of curating the exhibition, gathering graphics from businesses that have closed since 2017 in order not to lose fragments of the history of graphic design of the city and its inhabitants. .
A TRIBUTE TO MADRID’S COMMERCE
According to its organisers, No va a quedar nada de todo esto wants to look to the future from the past, recognising that the city we live in today will also pass away, as did the old cities that return to the surface in this exhibition. Visitors to CentroCentro will be able to see a huge display of signs and other media that take us on a journey through the history of the city of Madrid through its local businesses.
This collection of more than 150 signs, which can be visited until 10 March 2024, can be interpreted as a cemetery of businesses, a museum of shops and displaced streets, or also as a witness to what our public space has been and could be.
A kind of palimpsest of texts -some without current meaning, such as chamarilería or vaquería, many others consisting of surnames, sometimes local, sometimes migrated-, a history lesson in the history of Spanish graphic design, with its aesthetic and political changes, and an investigation into the transformations that our cities are undergoing.
Come to No va a quedar nada de todo esto, you can see some of Madrid’s most recognisable historic signs, such as those of Casa Benítez in Huertas, the Sala Canciller in Ventas, Fajas Ruiz in Sol, Casa Poli in the Barrio de Salamanca, the Somosierra cafeteria in Bilbao, the Kayto pastry shop in Vallecas, the ORTE shop in Barrio Quintana or the Zahara cafeteria on Gran Vía, all of them collected by the collective over the last seven years.
As well as examples of graphics in other media, the collection of bar napkins by Felipe Hernández, the collection of bags by Martín Sobrados de la Plaza, on loan to Paco Graco, or sets of price tags and wrapping silks.
If you want to know everything about this exhibition and the rest of CentroCentro’s programme, just take a look at the official website of the organisation. Don’t miss anything!
