The Serrería Belga Cultural Space, a center under the Culture, Tourism, and Sports Area, has welcomed over 90,000 visitors in the first half of the year who have been able to enjoy a diverse program of exhibitions and cultural activities for all audiences. After the summer period, this municipal center will start September celebrating the centenary of its construction with the opening of two exhibitions that pay tribute to its literary DNA and its location in the neighborhood of Las Letras.
During the first six months of the year, the center has offered a space to a diverse audience where art, literature, music, design, imagery, and gastroculture have taken a prominent place in alliance with prominent cultural agents. Currently, the Serrería Belga Cultural Space hosts three exhibitions where photography, contemporary art, senses, and letters linked to Madrid are the protagonists.
Until July 27, you can visit After all. Photography in the Helga de Alvear Collection, which documents a century of Europe’s visual history through its architecture, including works by photographers as relevant as Eugène Atget, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Thomas Struth, Candida Höfer, or Axel Hütte. This exhibition is part of the Official Section of PHotoESPAÑA 2025 and is organized in collaboration with the Helga de Alvear Museum.
On the other hand, the exhibition In the rhythm of summer, within the framework of Veranos de la Villa, establishes a dialogue between 52 contemporary art pieces from the olorVISUAL collection, promoted by Ernesto Ventós, and the olfactory interpretation of Madrid proposed by the Perfume Academy through an olfactory tour of emblematic spaces in the city. In the rhythm of summer, which can be enjoyed until August 3, includes pieces by artists such as Ouka Leele, Chema Madoz, or José María Yturralde.
Additionally, the Serrería Belga Cultural Space features the «Espacio Letras,» a place dedicated exclusively to literature and open all year round, hosting the exhibition Madrid, muse of Letters, which reveals the literary past of the building and its connection to the masterpieces of the Golden Age.
Remembering the past and looking towards the future
The programming of the Serrería Belga Cultural Space in the first half of 2025 has remembered the past with a current perspective and has also shown the new paths and disciplines that the contemporary artistic universe explores.
Thus, the life and work of Beethoven were brought to light with a pictorial and musical exhibition where the paintings of Andrés García Ibáñez, one of the main pictorial representatives of Spanish realism, coexisted with works by Francisco de Goya, in an exhibition carried out in collaboration with the Ibáñez Cosentino Art Foundation and the Zuloaga Foundation. This exhibition was accompanied by a series of parallel activities, with great public success, including guided tours with live musical interpretations, a conference with Andrés García Ibáñez, a choreographic tour, and an artistic workshop for children.
With Revista Afal, small and free, this municipal space commemorated the legacy of a magazine considered to be the driving force behind the renewal of Spanish photography in the post-war period, showcasing images from some of the most representative photographers published in its various issues.
On the other hand, in Iconic Madrid, 16 artists reinterpreted emblematic symbols of the capital with a contemporary and illustrative perspective, such as the statue of the Bear and the Strawberry Tree, El Rastro, El Retiro, or the Cibeles Fountain.
The exhibition programming was accompanied by musical concerts as part of the Piano City Madrid festival, live podcast broadcasts, and meetings with some of the most influential voices in podcasting in Spain and Latin America as part of the Estación Podcast festival, as well as fashion shows and presentations by renowned designers within the Madrid es Moda initiative.
In the months of May and June, it also hosted Espacio Iberia, where the airline presented its novelties, including an extensive cultural program with concerts, literary meetings, and gastronomic workshops, among other activities.
With a program that reflects the cultural effervescence of Madrid, this municipal space demonstrates its commitment to offering free proposals for all types of audiences in coordination with relevant cultural entities. /
