Image The new CentroCentro exhibition covers 90 years of Madrid's commercial graphic heritage

The new CentroCentro exhibition covers 90 years of Madrid's commercial graphic heritage
2023/11/07

  • Nothing is going to be left of all this brings together more than 150 commercial signs collected in the last seven years, as well as examples of graphics on other supports, such as napkins, labels and tissue papers.
  • The exhibition is curated by the Paco Graco collective, which since 2017 has been collecting graphics of businesses that close in order not to lose fragments of the history of graphic design of the city and its inhabitants.

Starting next November 2 , at 7:00 p.m. , in CentroCentro , a space in the Culture, Tourism and Sports Area of the Madrid City Council , you can take a tour of 90 years of Madrid's commercial graphic heritage, through more of 150 business signs , as well as other supports such as napkins, labels and tissue papers.

The exhibition curated by the Paco Graco collective, under the title Nothing is going to be left of all this , will occupy the 4th floor of CentroCentro, where neons, light boxes, pennants, glass, and graphics in different materials that have been used will be exhibited. over the years as brass , steel or wood . All of them are examples of commercial graphics from the last 90 years, with many pieces from the 60s and 80s of the 20th century, and some of them very old, such as the first door of 'La Moda' , from the beginning of the century. XX, or the soap factory on 26 Delicias Street , prior to the Civil War.

Very recognizable signs from Madrid will be exhibited, such as Casa Benítez de Huertas , the Canciller de Ventas room, Fajas Ruiz de Sol , Casa Poli from the Barrio de Salamanca , the Somosierra cafeteria from Bilbao , the Kayto pastry shop from Vallecas , the ORTE Store from Barrio Quintana or the Zahara cafeteria on Gran Vía , all of them collected by the collective over the last seven years. As well as examples of graphics on other supports, the Collection of bar napkins by Felipe Hernández , the collection of bags by Martín Sobrados de la Plaza , given to Paco Graco, or sets of price tags and wrapping silks.

Since 2017, Paco Graco has been collecting commercial graphics of the many businesses that are closing in Madrid, with the aim of “protecting and recovering all the signs of the businesses that are closing in the city (ugly, beautiful, historical, recent, of any material). ), with the goal of one day achieving a permanent museum of signs in Madrid and other provinces.”

This exhibition, which closes a tetralogy started in 2019, “is not an exhibition dedicated to the celebration of excellence in the design of the signs of yesteryear; It is not a place to mourn disappeared businesses, it is not a cemetery of a city that no longer exists. It is a new and current creative space where the signs dialogue with each other and with the street, and which aims to generate an intergenerational conversation to talk about the past, present and future,” explains the group.