Grass-Roots Landmark

Reading List 1
Marta Fernández Maeso 
La Tabacalera: dos años más de experimento
El País, Jan. 21, 2012

On the experimental, community-run, horizontally-organized cultural center in the 18th-century tobacco factory, now entering a renewed 2 year convenio from the Ministry of Culture. Another manifestation of Madrid's 15-M Movement. The spirit of Spanish Anarchism rekindled?

The planned renovation of the building by Madrid architects Nieto + Sobejano to house the National Center of the Visual Arts is indefinitely postponed.

But the building has become a new point of reference on the chain of cultural centers leading from the Thyssen and Prado museums to the Reina Sofia, the CaixaForum, Medialab-Prado, Bankia's Casa Encendida, etc.

The list encompasses a chain of increasingly participative institutions stretching from the Paseo del Prado to the borders of Lavapiés.

In Spanish.


Reading List 2
Sara Schaefer Muñoz and Ilan Brat
Spanish Banks Try to Build Their Way Out of Home Glut
The Wall Street Journal, January 16, 2012

Lots of data and an outside view on the Spanish housing crisis.


Photo:
Main hall of the Tabacalera, where assemblies and performances are held.
Photo by Santi Burgos
From El País