Trailer by the Ever Given ship jammed on the Suez Canal, Middle East Eye, 29 March 2021
Date and time
Held on 16 Sep 2017
Archipiélago is a concert series and research project that unfolded in the Museo Reina Sofía from 2017 to 2023 with the aim of questioning the universality of the term “experimentation” within the sphere of Western music. The term, which originated as a concept in the USA, has been replicated to the extent that it has created a canon and even a genre. Across its different editions, the series brought together different musicians, performers and researchers from around the world in an attempt to rethink other forms of experimentation beyond the frameworks of hegemonic thought. In collaboration with music groups and artists from different geographical areas, Archipelago approached this concept of “experimentation” from different perspectives.
Following a first edition in 2017, in which pioneering figures of minimalism encountered music and genres from non-European zones and new generations of artists, in 2018 it sought to resituate and question the term “experimental” with texts hailing from Central and South America and the Middle East, where the idea of experimentation as an avant-garde rupture lacks meaning opposite that of tradition as a living form of knowledge constantly mutating and spreading. Thus, in 2019 the programme introduced the act of listening to sound compositions and experimentations without applying any historical or geographical order, letting, by contrast, connections materialize between heterogenous languages and contexts. Despite the difficult circumstances brought about by COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021, a decision was made to back the physicality of live music and, therefore, strengthen local fabrics. In 2022, the project embarked upon a deep-time study of certain musical mutations that had not been addressed to an adequate degree from the previously investigated English-speaking narrative. Through a study of ocean currents, winds, trade routes and submarine cabling, a themed journey was put forward, one in which there is little to no difference between experimentation and tradition. Finally, for the closing edition in 2023, Archipelago set forth an account of fictional archaeology to re-consider the discourse of Western modernity by listening to an “impossible past” from which to imagine other futures for music.
Curators
Rubén Coll y José Luis Espejo
Organised by
Museo Reina Sofía
Sponsor
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September 16, 23 and 30, 2017 Sabatini Building
Archipelago 2017
Concert series
This first edition of Archipelago was enveloped in drone music and minimalism, exploring its influences and unexpected offshoots. The programme included key figures of experimentalism such as the French composer Éliane Radigue and the New York-based Japanese sound artist Yoshi Wada — both linked to minimalism and Fluxus, respectively. These “pioneering” figures were also joined by younger artists who, despite sharing certain compositional roots with Eastern music, adopt different formal approaches. For this particular edition, the artists presented commissioned and unreleased works, with the exception of Éliane Radigue’s Trilogie de la mort (Trilogy of Death), performed in its entirety by Emmanuel Holterbach for the first time in Spain.
Participants: Severine Beata and Javi Álvarez, Emmanuel Holterbach, iNSANLAR, Agnès Pe, Damián Schwartz, and Yoshi and Tashi Wada
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Friday 21 and Saturday 22 September, 2018 (check programme) / Sabatini Building, Vaults Gallery, Garden and Auditorium, and Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid, Manuel de Falla Auditorium
Archipelago 2018
Concert series
In its second edition, Archipelago reasserted its intention to present listening as a form of both knowledge and aesthetic pleasure. This edition saw Rubén Coll join the curatorial project, which set forth more comprehensive research into the feeling of exhaustion that can be perceived in the West’s experimental scene, whereby the relationship between formal rupture and progress often proves unconvincing. The participating artists questioned the universality of experimentation precisely as it had been expounded in some of Europe’s and the USA’s major cities, often looking to vindicate the non-Western roots of their music.
Participants: AMMAR 808, Clara de Asís, DJ LAG, Errorsmith, Cedrick Fermont, Hashigakari, Áine O’Dwyer, Janneke van der Putten, Nadah El Shazly, Tarawangsawelas & Rabih Beaini, Toukadime and TUTU.
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From 18 to 21 September 2019 Museo Reina Sofía (Sabatini Building, Vaults Gallery, Auditorium, Nouvel Building Auditorium, 400 Hall and Palacio de Cristal); Iglesia de San Millán y San Cayetano; Municipal School of Music and Dance, Distrito Centro María Dolores Pradera
Archipelago 2019
Concert Series
The 2019 edition explored the concept of tradition: a term associated with conservatism and regression in the face of change, but with a meaning that implies the transfer of knowledge from one person to another, from one generation to the next. Thus, the programme featured not only artists that experiment with non-Western roots, but also shone a light on noise, singeli and dance music, genres which subvert any attempt at classification via traditional forms such as electroacoustic, gnawa and traditional Kurpie music, as well as music from the nearby Madrid mountain range and the Galician bagpipes.
Participants: Saba Alizadeh, Asmâa, Kolida Babo, Rashad Becker, Lea Bertucci, Chulapeiras, Hamzaoui and Bnat Timbouktou, Gaba, Nina García, Ipek Gorgun, Miguel Nava and Rafa Martín, Bamba Pana & Makaveli, Psicolabio, Síria, R. Vincenzo, Lechuga Zafiro and Żywizna (Raphael Rogiński + Genowefa Lenarcik).
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Friday, 18 and Saturday, 19 September 2020 (check programme) Nouvel Building, Auditorium 400
Archipelago 2020
Concert series
Organised at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, this edition of Archipelago adopted an unusual format: all performances took place in the Nouvel Building’s Auditorium 400 with a quadrophonic arrangement of sound. Placing the stress on the physicality of sound and physical presence opposite streaming, DJ-led listening sessions were put forward and drew inspiration from the experience of diaspora, in addition to concerts that sought to reinvent the popular and speculate on what will come and be built in a highly unpredictable future.
Participants: Cher-ee-lee, Lucrecia Dalt and Jokkoo (Baba Sy & Mbodj), Jessica Ekomane and Tarta Relena.
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December 2021 Nouvel Building, Auditorium 400, Lobby
Archipelago 2021
Concert Series
TicketsThis fifth edition tackled the complexity of the post-traumatic effects of lockdown and crisis, responding to this situation by focusing on the local scene, realised with Atomizador and his approach to psychodelia from the instrumentation that characterises historical Western music. Marta De Pascalis, a Berlin-based composer from Rome, explored the complex ramifications of contemporary electronic music through the filter of southern European tradition, while non-hegemonic rhythmic innovations — one of the festival’s core areas of interest — found a space in the session of De Schuurman, a key figure in the evolution of bubbling, a music genre originating from Afro-Dutch postcolonial diaspora and highly influential, despite its limited exposure.
Participants: Atomizador, Marta De Pascalis and De Schuurman
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Saturday, 18 June 2022 Sabatini Building, Auditorium and Garden
Archipelago 2022
The Material Conditions of Our Music
TicketsStarting from the image of the ship Ever Given stranded on the Suez Canal in 2021, the sixth edition of Archipelago reflected on the material questions that influence music, for instance the transportation of raw materials and goods and the importance of ports, colonial routes and ocean currents, in addition to forced migrations. Through a string of concerts fusing traditional music and experimentation, Archipelago recapitulated, reinterpreted and overhauled learning related to the common history of traditional music to date.
Participants: Erkizia + Cantizano, Edna Martinez, Pujllay Masis, Mazaher and Mohammad Reza Mortazavi.
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Friday, 16 and Saturday, 17 June 2023 Sabatini Building, Auditorium, southwest Stairwell and Garden
Archipelago 2023
El Hierro Will Once Again Be the Centre of the World
Tickets (16 June)The 2023 edition brought down the curtain on a theoretical and geopolitical journey through the musical mutations of our times which was set in motion in 2017 by José Luis Espejo and then jointly with Rubén Coll from 2018 onwards. The island of El Hierro, halfway between Africa, Europe and South America, is a metaphor for music that circumvents the Western media’s powerful grid, which in turn rules the taste, presence and even fees of musicians from the experimental scene. In this final edition, El Hierro will once again be the centre of the world.
Participants: The Folkloric Ensemble of Sabinosa, DJ Travella and DJ Diaki, Helena Girón and Samuel M. Delgado, and Tenores di Bitti "Mialinu Pira".
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Multimedia
Archipelago 2017. Severine Beata and Javi Álvarez + iNSANLAR
Watch videoThis series of videos, made by Machines Desirantes Buro, documents the concerts performed in the first edition of Archipelago, in 2017, and is complemented with extensive interviews with the participants. This particular video features the concerts of Severine Beata and Javi Álvarez + iNSANLAR.
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Multimedia
Archipelago 2017. Yoshi and Tashi Wada + Damián Schwartz
Watch videoThis series of videos, made by Machines Desirantes Buro, documents the concerts performed in the first edition of Archipelago, in 2017, and is complemented with extensive interviews with the participants. This particular video features the concerts of Yoshi and Tashi Wada + Damián Schwartz.
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Multimedia
Archipelago 2017. Éliane Radigue by Emmanuel Holterbach + Agnès Pe
Watch videoThis series of videos, made by Machines Desirantes Buro, documents the concerts performed in the first edition of Archipelago, in 2017, and is complemented with extensive interviews with the participants. This particular video features the concerts of Emmanuel Holterbach and Agnès Pe.
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Multimedia
Archipelago 2018
Watch videoThis video, made by Banda Negra, assembles the interventions from the second edition of Archipelago and includes interviews with some of its participants, exploring the possibility of new forms of listening from different twentieth-century sound recordings with a desire to unearth alternatives to the restraints of a canon built from now-exhausted genealogies and narratives.
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Multimedia
Archipelago 2019
Watch videoThis video, made by Banda Negra, documents the third edition of Archipelago, exploring the concept of tradition: a term associated with conservatism and regression opposite change, but with a meaning that implies the transfer of knowledge, from one person to another, from one generation to the next.
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Multimedia
Udlot, Udlot by José Maceda
Concert
Watch videoThis video, made by Banda Negra, documents and contextualises the process of mediation, learning and performance of Udlot Udlot (1975), by Philippine composer José Maceda.
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Multimedia
Archipelago 2022
The Material Conditions of Our Music
Watch videoThis video, made by Javi Álvarez and Irene de Andrés, reflects the narrative of the 2022 edition of Archipelago. The narration takes us through centuries-old colonial routes for the transportation of goods and cargo, routes which remain today and brought about cultural exchanges that impacted music.
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Multimedia
Archipelago 2023
El Hierro Will Once Again Be the Centre of the World
Watch videoFrom 2018 onwards, the Archipelago concert series invited the audience to delve deeper into the complexity of the contemporary world through listening, seeking to foreground music genres and modes of listening which provide an alternative to European and US cultural centres. This video, made by Javi Alvárez and Irene de Andrés, documents the seventh, and final, instalment of Archipelago, which was centred on El Hierro, a volcanic island which was considered prime meridian for centuries. Located halfway between Africa, Europe and South America, the island is also a metaphor for all music that circumvents the Western media’s powerful grid.
This edition featured the screening of the film Eles transportan a morte (2021), by film-maker’s Helena Girón and Samuel M. Delgado, from Galicia and Tenerife, respectively; a performance by the Folkloric Ensemble of Sabinosa; music by DJ Travella from Tanzania and Malian DJ Diaki; and a concert by the Sardinian ensemble Tenores di Bitti “Mialinu Pira”.
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Podcast
Archipelago 2020
How to Listen to Live Music Amid a Pandemic
Listen to podcastThis podcast, written and hosted by Rubén Coll and José Luis Espejo, presents the testimony of artists who participated in the 2020 edition of Archipelago, reflecting on how a cultural event is assembled by considering, for instance, the political and commercial structures that underpin our precarious music communities.
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Pódcast
Archipelago 2021
Concert Series
Listen to podcastThe series shares, for the first time, the recordings of three concerts which comprised the 2021 edition.
Más actividades
Economy of Hate
18 ABR, 9 MAY 2026
Economy of Hate features one sole work, Oído Odio (2021) by artist Diego del Pozo Barriuso. The piece combines television and media archive materials, recordings with performers with explicitly queer corporalities and 3D animations, combining in a strikingly fluid dialogue. The title alludes to a notion developed by the artist concerning the materiality with which hate circulates and the way it escalates. Setting out from the idea that hate is an affect which gains more value the more it circulates, the video shows the evolution from television to mobiles, expounding how the change of technological paradigm has made viral the fact of being in contact more than ever with explicitly violent images.
Inside the framework of The Collection Screened, a programme rooted in the institution’s film, video and moving image holdings, the Museo invites Laura Baigorri, one of the leading specialists in video art, to approach specific aspects related to identity, self-representation and the body within the Museo’s audiovisual collection since the 1990s.
![Dias & Riedweg, Casulo [Crisálida], 2019, película](https://recursos.museoreinasofia.es/styles/small_landscape/public/Actividades/desafios-cine-2.png.webp)
Other Voices in Us All
17 ABR, 8 MAY 2026
A session which starts from a subtle corporeal challenge that prompts a confrontation with reason from sensibility and emotion, both of which are linked to a difference in mental health or spiritualism. It opens with a beautiful and strange short film entitled A família do Capitao Gervásio (2013), by Tamar Guimarães and Kasper Akhøj, set in a small town in inland Brazil, where around half the inhabitants are psychic mediums whose work centres on community healing. The second piece, Dias & Riedweg’s Casulo, is the outcome of a participatory project with a group of patients from the Institute of Psychiatry at the Universidad Federal de Río de Janeiro. The video bears witness to the development of their routines after hospitalisation and captures their ideas and impressions about different aspects of life, revealing the division between territories of reason and madness in their daily existence.
Inside the framework of The Collection Screened, a programme rooted in the institution’s film, video and moving image holdings, the Museo invites Laura Baigorri, one of the leading specialists in video art, to approach specific aspects related to identity, self-representation and the body within the Museo’s audiovisual collection since the 1990s.
We Go On from Here… And Will Not Move
Thursday, 16 April and Thursday, 7 May 2026 — 19:00
This session advances a programme focused on the most elemental side of performance: a simple, direct act that starts from the self-exhibition of the body. At certain points, from the calculated serenity of Miguel Benlloch’s Tengo tiempo (I Have Time, 1994); at other times, from the challenging and visceral impulse of Bollos (Buns, 1996), by Cabello y Carceller, or the rage of Habla (Talk, 2008), by Cristina Lucas; and, finally, from video-graphic experimentation, disconcerting and sustained in the dance culture of Moving Backwards (2019), by Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz, whose mise en scène reminds us that it is not actually déjà vu but the present, unfortunately, that moves through a reactionary period.
Inside the framework of The Collection Screened, a programme rooted in the institution’s film, video and moving image holdings, the Museo invites Laura Baigorri, one of the leading specialists in video art, to approach specific aspects related to identity, self-representation and the body within the Museo’s audiovisual collection since the 1990s. The session recovers paradigmatic performances, from three successive decades, crossed by the indisputable expression of gender; that is, mediated by the confronted acts of feminisms and the queer paradigms of culture.
Lucrecia Martel. Our Land
Saturday, 18 April 2026 – 4:30pm
Nuestra tierra (Our Land, 2025) is Argentinian film-maker Lucrecia Martel’s first documentary and her most recent work. The film focuses on the legal case surrounding the murder, in 2009, of Javier Chocobar, a member of the Los Chuschagasta Indigenous community, who was killed while resisting the forced displacement of ancestral land located in northern Argentina, territory hiscommunity has inhabited and farmed for centuries.
Drawning on fragments of the above-mentioned trial, which took place in 2019, as well as a meticulous reconstruction of the history of Los Chuschagasta since the seventeenth century, Martel decries how colonial violence, far from being a relic of the past, underlies current political and social structures and ends in the mistreatment and systematic invisibility of Indigenous peoples.
Lucrecia Martel is a director and screenwriter widely regarded asone of the most relevant film-makers in the twenty-first-centuryLatin American cinema. To date, she has directed four feature-length films: La ciénaga (The Swamp, 2001), Zama (2001), La niña santa (The Holy Girl, 2004) and La mujer rubia (The Blonde Woman, 2008), all of which have been awarded at film festivals, including recognitions in the Official Selection at Cannes. Accross her work Martel explores the complexities of an Argentina shaped by the political and social crisis of the 1990s and by the burden of a colonial past, which she translates into her own visual language of documentary, paradoxically offsetting it against fiction. As Martel asserts: “What I do is all lies, all artifice. I don’t believe in the truth and, if there is any effect of truth in my films, then it’s a miracle”.
These notions, the germinating material of her films, enable a reflection on how the tactics of fiction and imagination, materialized thought creativity, can function as powerful means of resisting the erasure of memory and as a tactic of reparative justice. This line of thought also underpins READ Madrid. The Festival of Books and Ideas, which frames the screening of this film.
READ Madrid is a space of encounter for critical and experimental voices in the sphere of literature and theory. The festival gathers a transatlantic framework of voices related to writing, art and publishing, whose practices challenge hegemonic frameworks of knowledge production and make room for performative and cinematic forms as expanded forms of research.
READ Madrid. Festival of Books and Ideas
Friday 17 and Saturday 18 April, 2026 – Check Programme
READ Madrid. Festival of Books and Ideas emerges as a meeting space for critical and experimental voices in the fields of literature, theory, and publishing. With particular attention to artistic production practices and independent publishing, and seeking to build a transatlantic cultural bridge with Latin America, the program aims to decenter hegemonic frameworks of knowledge production and open up new communities of interpretation and horizons for political imagination. To this end, it takes writing and reading—understood in broad and plural ways across their modes, forms, and registers—as constitutive of a public laboratory of what we call study: a space for thinking collectively, debating and coining ideas, making and unmaking arguments, as well as articulating new imaginaries and forms of enunciation.
In a context of ecological, political, and epistemological crisis, the festival proposes modes of gathering that make it possible to sustain shared time and space for collective reflection, thereby contributing to the reconfiguration of the terms of cultural debate. In this sense, the program is conceived as an intervention into the contemporary conditions of circulation and legitimation of thought and creation, expanding the traditional boundaries of the book and connecting literature, visual arts, performance, and critical thought. These formats are organized around three thematic axes led by key voices in contemporary writing, artistic practice, and critical thinking.
The thematic axes of READ Madrid. Festival of Books and Ideas are: a popular minoritarian, or how to activate an emancipatory practice of the popular; raging peace, or how to sustain justice, mourning, and repair without resorting to pacifying imaginaries devoid of conflict; and fiction against oblivion, which explores the role of science fiction, horror, and speculative narratives as forms of resistance against the liberalism of forgetting. Ultimately, the aim is to interrogate our present through the potential that ideas and books can mobilize within a shared space of study, debate, and enjoyment.