Matadero Madrid presents Clima Fitness, a place to reflect on the planetary crisis and climate change

• The proposal, organized by Intermediae Matadero, made up of an architectural device by Igor Bragado and Miles Gertler (Common Accounts) and an exhibition curated by Maite Borjabad, opens on July 6 at 7:00 p.m.
• At the opening, Mary Maggic will offer her performance Faster, Higher, Stronger, a site-specific piece by the artist for Clima Fitness
• Intermediae Matadero continues to invite artists and architects to collaborate, generating proposals that explore the role of architecture in the field of social art

Matadero Madrid, a space of the Department of Culture, Tourism and Sports of the Madrid City Council, presents Clima Fitness, a new intervention in hall 17, which opens on July 6 at 7:00 p.m. This new proposal is an exhibition, a gym, a performance, a device, a meeting place that invites us to reflect on the planetary crisis and our necessary capacity to adapt to the effects of climate change.

With this project, Intermediae continues to generate proposals that explore the role of architecture in the field of social art, and this time it does so by reformulating the concept of fitness, the idea of ​​training as a form of adaptation in terms of postmodern ecology, theories eco-feminists, biology or speculative fiction, to provoke a critical reflection about our world and the relationships between species that compose it.

Organized by Intermediae Matadero, the Clima Fitness project is curated by Maite Borjabad and designed and conceptualized by Igor Bragado and Miles Gertler (Common Accounts), a tandem of architects who start from their essay Planet Fitness (2019) to give shape to this facility capable of hosting an exhibition with works by Faysal Altunbozar, Itziar Barrio, Ibiye Camp, Irati Inoriza and Mary Maggic, as well as hosting a program of activities that includes a critical studies seminar, a call for video art works and a second Call for research projects.

Fitness as an agency of change
Clima Fitness, which can be visited from July 7, is part of this shared research framework with an urgent and complex reflection within the context of the current social and environmental crisis, seeking to generate alternative narratives or imaginaries through adaptation. To do this, as explained by Igor Bragado and Miles Gertler (Common Accounts), “Climate Fitness is based on the term climatic fitness, which in biology defines the ability of a species to adjust to the environment with which it is related, and which in popular culture alludes to to the physical and mental preparation necessary to face the consequences of an environmental collapse”.

The notion of fitness thus serves as a narrative activator in its double meaning and Clima Fitness is configured as a space to build stories that go from the human body to the planet and from the planet to its ecosystems. The result is a device to configure new rituals of critical adaptability and to address issues such as biopower and its relationship with the body and work; the construction of toxic masculinity and its performativity through fitness; training as a disciplining mechanism of the collective body; or the ambition to control the body together with the desire to dominate the natural environment.

In the words of Maite Borjabad, “Clima Fitness invites us to decode ourselves, to think collectively and individually, to situate ourselves in the contemporary moment to find an agency for change and planetary affection, to understand the limits and inexorable flows between our body and the planet we inhabit. , and redefine them from mutuality.”

An architecture for knowledge
Symbiosis and the search for contact zones between architecture and art, between architects and artists, continues to be one of the keys to the work of Intermediae, the Matadero Madrid program in charge of activating Warehouse 17. The protagonists are those projects that expand the role of architecture understood as a bridge, an alibi and a refuge to accommodate art of a social and relational nature, offering unique spaces for reflection in the city, both for its content and for its constant challenge to the logic of speculation and spectacle.

Clima Fitness joins hands with other projects previously installed in Nave 17, such as Paisaje para el juego (Aberrant Architecture, 2019), Teatro sin fin (Leonor Serrano Rivas, 2019-20), Dance floor (Guillermo Santomá, 2020- 21) or The sheet (FAHR 021.3, 2022), among others.

Climate Fitness Credits
Project organized by Intermediae Matadero.

Clima Fitness is curated by Maite Borjabad, the spatial installation conceived by Common Accounts (Igor Bragado and Miles Gertler), and the works of artists such as Faysal Altunbozar, Itziar Barrio, Ibiye Camp, Irati Inoriza and Mary Maggic.

The execution of the spatial installation has been carried out by Andrea Muniáin and the lighting design is by Oscila Estudio. The installation has been produced by ArtWorks, the audiovisual service is provided by Zenit Audio and the assembly of the exhibited works has been carried out by Ademobe Make. The graphic identity of the project is Kiwi Bravo.

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More information:
www.intermediae.es and www.mataderomadrid.org
Contact: [email protected], 618465601