Documents 19. Let’s Say I’m Talking About Madrid
The Sketched Museum. Enrique Flores Workshop
Wednesday, 10, from 5pm to 8pm; Thursday, 11, from 10:30am to 1:35pm; and Friday, 12, from 5pm to 8pm
The Documents programme explores the relationships between art and publishing, and other subjects that include the effects of archive on narratives of art history, the artist’s book and publishing as an artistic practice. In this edition, Documents 19 focuses on the rise of graphic design and illustration with the central theme of Madrid, a strong presence in the Museo Reina Sofía’s growing collection of posters and graphic work.
This creative workshop, conducted by illustrator Enrique Flores, revolves around the concept of “illustrated journalism”, a way of narrating the present from illustration. It has been set up to carry out a sketched chronicle of daily life inside the Museo, conceiving it as a living institution which is permeable to the city and with myriad activities that stretch beyond regular visits. Across three sessions, participants explore the institution, accompanying some of the programmes that take place within and delving into places with limited access to the general public to observe the daily tasks of its staff. In the first session, the group will join Otros libros, y eso (Other Books, And That) — the Museo Library’s book club — during the activation of its first book, drawing the session as it develops. The second involves a guided tour around the Museo’s restoration workshop, after which participants will be able to reflect their impressions graphically. The third and final session entails a walk around the Museo Reina Sofía Collection in the company of Enrique Flores, followed by a common discussion of the results. The combination of works carried out during the workshop seeks to graphically represent life inside the Museo and the multiple ways of inhabiting it.
The workshop serves as a counterpoint to Documents 19. Let’s Say I’m Talking About Madrid. Graphic Art for the City, a round-table discussion spotlighting Madrid’s present-day graphic design and illustration and its momentum from the institutional municipal sphere with designers Marga Castaño, Mercedes deBellard and Carmen García Huerta, and creative director Nacho Padilla.
Enrique Flores (Badajoz, 1967) is an illustrator and art director who has worked with some of Spain’s foremost publishers, for instance SM, Aguilar and Anaya, and El País, where he has published around 1,000 illustrations across more than 10 years. He has received the Generalitat Valenciana Book Award for the best illustrated Spanish-language book for BeBop (text by Felipe Hernández Cava, Edicions del Ponent, 2000), and the Lazarillo Illustration Award for Parchís (editorial Tatanka, 2012). Moreover, he has coordinated different activities, among them eight editions of Dibujamadrid, a series organised by Museo ABC, and has published over ten travelogues on countries like India (Blur Ediciones, 2007), Cuba (Edicions de ponent, 2009) and Nepal (A buen paso, 2015), and cities such as Venice (Chucherías de Arte, 2015), as well as participating in collective books. He was the founder and coordinator of illustrations in the M21 Magazine from 2017 to 2019.