Featured Events in Madrid in May 2025 (May Updated)

The museum presents an exhibition on the importance that art had in the work of one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, Marcel Proust (Auteuil, 1871 - Paris, 1922), recognized in both literature and philosophy and art theory. The aesthetic ideas that Proust develops in his work, the artistic, monumental and landscape environments that surrounded him and that he recreates in his books, as well as the contemporary artists or the past that served as a stimulus are some of the aspects that articulate the tour of the exhibition. The aim is to highlight this link and the interrelation between art and its figure, its life and its work. To understand Proust it is important to know the Paris in which he lived, that is, the cosmopolitan and rich capital of the Third Republic, his great transformation after the urban reforms of Baron Hausmann, with the appearance of electricity, cars, shows, restaurants and cafes. Proust was fascinated not only by the arts, but of that modernity so booming in the late 19th century. The image of the modern that the Impressionist painters created through their representation of the streets and other environments of Paris is at the basis of the propolitan aesthetic: all this would mark his biography and also his writings.

A Life in a Few Lines marks the first major European retrospective of the Lebanese-born artist Huguette Caland (Beirut, 1931–2019), whose life and work spanned decades, continents and media, challenging the aesthetic and social conventions of her time. Featuring approximately 300 drawings, paintings, sculptures and work in other media, as well as documentary ephemera, the exhibition weaves a new narrative around Caland’s practice, questioning perceptions of her cosmopolitan rootlessness to show an artist deeply connected to community, communication and the idea of home. It also reveals her defiance of social and sexual norms in work that explores notions of gender, the body, belonging, love, aging and personhood, all of which is set against the broader geopolitical currents of a decolonising and neoliberalising world.

Hello Everyone is a large-scale installation that brings together works by Léa Estrucci (Barcelona, ​​1981) from 2011 to the present day. These works incorporate formal variations, constituting a fragmented and echoing archive that includes sculptures, sounds, moving images, graphic works and visual scores. Overall, it can be seen as both a retrospective and a navigable warehouse.

The exhibition “Reencountering Néstor” seeks to retrospectively reinterpret the image of Néstor Martín-Fernández de la Torre (Las Palmas, 1887-1938), an artist from the Canary Islands with a wide range of interests. From paintings and murals to theatre sets and costumes by such notable figures as Manuel de Falla and Antonia Mercé y Luque, La Argentina, the exhibition features more than 100 works that are relatively unknown outside the island.

This anthological exhibition on Marisa González (Bilbao, 1943) surveys the artist’s career after she was awarded the Velázquez Prize in 2023. A series of works from the 1970s, made in the Department of Generative Systems from the School of the Art Institute de Chicago, foretells of the artist’s early and sustained interest in communication and image reproduction technology, a concern what would situate González at the forefront of such experimentation in Spain. Some years later, she would in fact participate in Procesos (Processes), a 1986 exhibition that opened the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and explored the intersections between culture and new technology. Moreover, the subject matter explored in some of her earlier works (images related to violence against women, revisions of maternity, etc.) have granted the artist a position in recent research on feminist genealogies in Spanish art.

The museum presents a solo exhibition by Japanese artist Ayako Rokkaku (Tokyo, 1982) that traces her artistic evolution through thirty early and recent works, including paintings, sculptures and installations. The exhibition, part of the programme of shows devoted to the Blanca and Borja Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, reveals a universe in constant transformation, where past and present intermingle, and where paradise is not a destination, but a fleeting sensation, just beyond reach yet always within feeling.

The Palacio de Cristal has traditionally been a space where artists are commissioned to work on a new piece conceived specifically for its unique architecture. Although the restoration and repair work currently being carried out on its structure means visitors cannot access its interior, the programme held within to support the public display of current art continues all the same. In fact, it is the radical imagination of artists that will enable the Museo Reina Sofía to continue to endow this emblematic space with cultural content. The first such artist to take part in this series is Miguel Ángel Tornero (Baeza, 1978), who contributes with a work devised for the canvases which will cover the building during its first year of restoration work.

The work of Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa (Guatemala City, Guatemala, 1978) fuses sculptural installation, video and performance to open a reflection on his own biography and on his country’s turbulent history, marked by different forms of violence and armed conflict. Ramírez-Figueroa’s practice draws from Latin American political activism and experimental theatre, calling into question established and entrenched narratives which have emerged on specific episodes in the recent past. Through the physicality of bodies and staged environments that envisage fantasy and reality, the artist revisits his own traumas and those of a country shaped by colonial extractivism, civil war and the social imbalance of the Indigenous population.

The Fiesta de San Isidro is an annual celebration of Madrid's patron saint, San Isidro de Labrador, usually held on or around May 15. Celebrations include concerts, shows and a variety of activities for all ages. Locals dress up in traditional costumes, dance chotis in the streets and have picnics with friends and family in the Pradera de San Isidro park. Other traditions include drinking holy water and taking part in the Romería outdoor celebration. This festival is both a religious celebration and an important part of Madrid's culture, attracting many tourists and locals alike.

FEINDEF Expo 2025, a pivotal event in the defense and security sector, will take place at the renowned IFEMA in Madrid from May 12 to May 14, 2025. This prestigious expo serves as a vital hub for industry leaders, government officials, and innovators to converge and explore cutting-edge advancements in defense technology. With Madrid's vibrant backdrop, attendees will have the opportunity to engage in insightful discussions, witness groundbreaking product launches, and foster strategic partnerships. FEINDEF Expo 2025 promises to be a cornerstone event, offering a comprehensive platform for showcasing the latest innovations and trends shaping the future of global defense. The venue, IFEMA - Feria de Madrid, provides an ideal setting for this international gathering, ensuring an enriching experience for all participants.

The museum presents for the first time in its entirety in Madrid the set of works of Francesco Guardi belonging to the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, thanks to a collaboration agreement between the two institutions. With a total of 18 oils and a drawing, he is the artist best represented in this collection of more than 6,000 pieces of art assembled by financier Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian (1869-1955), which, since 1969, has been exhibited in the museum that bears his name in Lisbon. Along with Guardi's paintings, acquired between 1907 and 1921, a drawing of the same artist, incorporated in 2002, and an oil from his son Giacomo, is shown. The works are dated between 1765 and 1791 and illustrate iconic places in Venice, such as the Rialto Bridge or the Ducal Palace, festivals such as the Ascension, the surroundings of the city and some whims, belonging at the end of his career. After an initial stage in which he served mainly as a painter of history, religious themes, frescoes and even still lifes, Guardi began to paint views of his city, first following the precise style of his predecessor Canaletto to then add vitality and illusion to his compositions. After the death of Canaletto in 1768, he became the most important vedutist in Venice.

The exhibition Marina Vargas: Revelations is part of the Kora cycle, with which the museum proposes to give visibility to works carried out by women artists of the current scene with a gender perspective. For this exhibition, Marina Vargas (Granada, 1980) has carried out a research project around the silence of women throughout history, especially in relation to the sacred and the spiritual, a topic that he has already dealt with in previous works and whose objective now is to reveal his extensive contributions. From the figure of Mary Magdalene, studied by feminist theologians such as Karen King (Harvard University), Cynthia Bourgeault (University of Pennsylvania) or Meggan Watterson (University of Columbia), Vargas traces a tour that explores the figure of women in the history of art, in the imagery, but also in the sacred story, from his biography and personal experience, with a current perspective that seeks to break the silence through which the patriarchal system has relegated them to asecond place. Revelations show the hidden through newly created works that will be presented for the first time in this exhibition.

The majlis is the traditional hospitality space in Arab and North African houses, the place where guests and travelers are welcomed, offering them shelter and cohabitation. Hospitality is also the central proposal of the exhibition that Lebanese artist and composer Tarek Atoui (Beirut, 1980) presents at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, in collaboration with TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary. It is called At-Triq, which means "the one who comes from the night" or "the star of the morning," and is part of a long-term research project on the rural musical traditions of the Arab world on sub-Saharan pilgrimage and trade routes.Atoui shows in the museum the first chapter of his proposal, with which he approaches the Tamazgha, the North African territories inhabited by the Amazigh or Berber people, source and deposit of musical, artistic, artisanal and intellectual traditions. After two years of exchange with musicians and artisans from the Moroccan Atlas region and other nearby areas, the artist presents a space of poetic hospitality - composed around the majlis, a place that welcomes, receives and resonates, while generating a multiplicity of affinities and experiences.In At-Triq, music is the protagonist and becomes itself an act of hospitality. Through intertwined textures and materials, this sound installation invites visitors to inhabit the thresholds between the traditional and the contemporary, the familiar and the unknown, revealing the nomadic inclinations present in these affinities.

This exhibition showcases a selection of works by Roberto Fabelo, a Cuban artist who works in diverse languages, including painting, sculpture, and illustration. It explores works in different formats, selected by curator Mario José Hernández, among strange and dreamlike images that combine elements of reality and fantasy with meticulous attention to detail in a symbolic interpretation. Using vibrant colors and intricate compositions in his paintings, drawings, and sculptures, he often depicts fantastic creatures, anthropomorphic animals, and human figures, drawing comparisons to Goya due to their rich symbolism and allegorical narrative.