IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO MOVE A DESERT

In this exhibition, María Jerez invites us to revisit the idea of the playground and step into a play space that transforms like a landscape as we step on it, lift it, move it, spin it, blow on it, caress it, and contemplate it. A soft landscape that also looks back at us, changes us, and lets us enter, stay, cross through, or disappear, only to reappear as a desert. A landscape that is never alone; it only exists, mutates, changes, and shifts in relation to others.

This is an invitation to mutate, change, and transform this environment while participants allow themselves to be changed, transformed, and altered by it. To become dune, wind, earthquake, anthill, passerby, sun, avalanche…

A large, soft, amorphous textile surface.

A scenography where one can appear and disappear inside, underneath, or behind it.

Growing dunes.

A giant hanging sun and many smaller ones inviting visitors to become celestial bodies.

Fabrics that allow entry into the insides of underground worlds.

A second skin to sound like a rattlesnake.

Soft stones for inserting your arms.

Long sticks to become oasis currents.

A soundscape that unfolds the inherent sonority of everything touched.

A desert to grow in and maybe, who knows, raise a village.

Participant Information

Free admission with ticket download via the Madrid Destino ticketing platform. Each person may download up to 6 tickets.

80-minute time slots are enabled to ensure access. After each session, the space will be cleared to allow entry for a new group.

Tickets for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday sessions will be available the previous Thursday at 12:00. Tickets for Tuesday to Thursday sessions will be available the previous Monday at 12:00. Please carefully consider your ability to attend before downloading tickets, since unused tickets leave empty spots.

Non-slip socks are recommended, as visitors will need to remove their shoes to enter the space.

Children must always be accompanied by a responsible adult.

ACCESSIBILITY: if any participant has special needs or if the group includes people with disabilities, please write to: educacion@mataderomadrid.org

SCHOOL GROUPS: morning sessions from Tuesday to Friday are available for schools with prior booking at: educacion@mataderomadrid.com

RECOMMENDED AGE: all audiences. Children must be accompanied.

About the creator and the proposal

María Jerez is a contemporary artist whose work lies at the intersection of choreography, film, and visual arts. Her practice seeks to open relational spaces between the visible and the invisible, the human and the non-human, questioning the limits of representation and the position of the spectator. Her work has developed in international contexts, in collaboration with other creators and collectives, continually expanding the forms of performance into the everyday. Through her projects, she invites us to rethink the relationship between art and life, challenging traditional structures of knowledge and opening pathways for discovery in every encounter with her work.

In 2024, she presented the first iteration of this exhibition at Tabakalera (Donostia–San Sebastián) as part of the project Situ-akzioak, under the title Se necesita un pueblo para levantar una montaña (Herri bat behar da mendi bat altxatzeko), aimed at children and family audiences. The exhibition transformed the space into a mutable landscape where visitors could intervene actively—moving, lifting, or touching elements that changed the environment—encouraging sensory experimentation and learning through play. This line of work continues in the exhibition developed for Matadero Madrid.