CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo

The CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, funded by the Regional Government of Madrid, opened in May 2008. Following the appointment of Ferran Barenblit to the post of director, the centre is gradually becoming a crucial facility for the Madrid arts scene, thanks to its programme of exhibitions and activities.

The CA2M is a dynamic arts venue devoted to cutting-edge art. It is home to the Contemporary Art Collection of the Regional Government of Madrid, which comprises close on 1,500 works from all disciplines. At the same time, it organises an ambitious programme of exhibitions, mediation and research, designed to earn it a place among the most advanced arts centres in Europe.

Among the fundamental issues that the centre aims to address are the study of the meaning of art in modern-day culture and society; the political effectiveness of art and culture; the alternatives to traditional work models in art; the analysis of the institution art as a perpetuator of symbolic and economic power relations; concepts related to life in community and, specifically, the role of the periphery of large cities.

Situated at the heart of Móstoles, the CA2M occupies a purpose-built edifice constructed on the site of an old traditional building known as the Casona. With a total of 5,886 square metres, the centre accommodates exhibition spaces, distributed on three floors, an auditorium for one hundred people, a bar / shop, a media library and a terrace suitable for a wide range of outdoor activities. It also includes office and research spaces, as well as specially equipped storerooms for holding the works in the collection. The basic architectural design for this new facility is by Celia Vinuesa and the construction project by Pablo Pérez-Urruti.

The programme organised by the centre revolves around four broad types of activity. The first one concerns the temporary exhibition of the works in the collection through presentations designed to enhance the significance of the collection and its relationship with international trends. The second type of activity is group exhibitions which, curated by different experts, provide perspectives on cutting-edge art. The third type of activity revolves around individual exhibitions by emerging artists, with an emphasis on the production of new projects to generate new works of art. Finally, the fourth type of activity, on which the centre places a particular emphasis, is unrelated to exhibitions and ranges from traditional events such as talks, slideshows and debates to novel formats designed to enable large audiences to engage with art.

The relationship with the public is an aspect of particular interest to the CA2M. Situated south of Madrid  serving as an immediate cultural facility for over one million inhabitants and, in a larger radius, over five million inhabitants in the region as a whole - the centre is developing innovative mediation strategies to enable art to fulfil its function as an intellectual stimulus in modern society and culture.