Matadero Madrid center for contemporary creation
Javier Orcaray Vélez
Los golfos is a study of how the industrial infrastructures used to store food in the city of Madrid have changed over the course of the 20th century. A study of the relationship between the changes in our food system, public policies related to the production, distribution, sale and consumption of food, waste management, and their impact on societies, their cultures and, of course, the environment.
The project takes its name from Carlos Saura’s popular film The Delinquents (Los Golfos) (1960), a social history of the Madrid of that time, in which one of whose most dramatic scenes takes place in the old fruit in Madrid’s Legazpi district. Taking these images as our starting point and with our gaze set firmly on the present, we delve into the current state of affairs: How does Madrid feed itself? What impact does this process have on the territory? Given its more than likely negative impact, what are the corresponding public policies?
BIO
Javier Orcaray Vélez (Barcelona, 1980) lives and works in Cordoba. A cultural manager, curator and artist, he has a degree in History (Cordoba), and two Mas, one in Contemporary World History (Pompeu i Fabra) and another in Theory of Visual Culture (NYU). In his practice, he creates spaces of encounters where communities can come together: artists, popular knowledge, science and agriculture. He is the founder of La Fragua Artist Residency (2010-2017), CoMbO (2014-2016) and the PLATA platform, active since 2020. He also conceives and curates projects such as AABAS: Art, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Food and Health(C3A in 2017), You live in an Agricultural City! (Cultura y Ciudadanía, F.Carasso, 2021-2023) and Suq Centeno, 2023. He also won the ArtForChange call of the “La Caixa” Foundation in 2022 with his project Disidanzas.
One of the recipients of the 2024 Quarterly Residencies for Projects on the Environment for visual artists at Matadero Madrid’s Centre for Artists in Residence.