The centre is to receive an initial 12, 5 million in European structural funds creating gallery spaces, workshops and residencies for artists. The work has already begun and will not finish until 2023 at the earliest.
This model of incorporating contemporary art and artists where they will both work and live similar to Rijksakademie in Amsterdam and Fabrikken in Copenhagen.
The workshop in Tabacalera was closed majorly in 2020 due to our friend COVID 19 and completely from March 2021 in order to carry out structural reinforcements to the building. A small area known as SALA DE JEFFES \ The offices of the bosses\ is still accessible to collectives.
This 8,000 sq meter building consisting of four floors and an extensive basement is located at the Heart of Madrid in the neighbourhood of Lavapies. The achitecture is Bourbon and it was purpose build as a tabacco factory between 1780 - 92. It functioned as one of the largest tobacco factories in the world until it finally closed it's doors in 1991.
The sheer size and the fact that it is a protected building made it very difficult to manage. It had been ear-marked as a centre of creativity in the city with a budget of 30 million before the crash in 2008 which threw both Spain and Tabacalera into unchartered waters.
Madrid council opened a part of the building as a non-profit \auto - gestionada\ self sufficient cultural centre in 2010. The council pays for the electricity, water and twenty four hour securuty and in return the sixteen to twenty different collectives working from the centre must provide cultural and community based activities.
Everything you could imagine has taken place over the past ten years that I have worked from this space. All types of exhibitions, digital or traditional, insane dance raves and spontaneous Tango , balenge or samba. The first OCCUPY began here in 2011 when the people took to the streets in Madrid and Barcelona in protest against the financial system and how globalisation was impoverishing and disempowering people. And a new political party and movement called Podemus began with it's meetings sometimes in our workshop. The centre began more politically active but the different collectives felt it would be better to remove any political agenda and concentrate more on community and culture.
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