Activities

Raquel Meyers has been selected for this eight-week graphic animation residence that takes place in several places in Spain and abroad. Organized by Irudika and Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), in collaboration with Fundación Vital, Fundación Bilbaoarte Fundazioa and the Cité Internationale de la Bande Dessinée et de l'Image de Angoulême, it seeks to facilitate the creation of artistic networks, promote the mobility of artists, encourage creative production and strengthen links between Spanish and foreign cultural institutions. During it, Raquel Meyers must develop a personal animation project that consists of a short film of 20 to 60 seconds that will be used in the next Irudika 2020 Festival. The residence is distributed in the following stages and places: - Phase 1: VITORIA-GASTEIZ. ZAS SPACE. February 6, 2020. - Phase 2: BILBAO. From February 7 to March 4, 2020. FUNDACIÓN BILBAOARTE FUNDAZIOA. - Phase 3: ANGULEMA. From March 4 to 27, 2020. MAISON DES AUTEURS DE ANGOULÊME (France). - Phase 4: BILBAO. From March 27 to April 5, 2020 at the BILBAOARTE FUNDAZIOA FOUNDATION, with possible visit to the BILNA CHILDREN’S BOOK FAIR (from March 30 to April 2, 2020) - Phase 5: VITORIA. From April 5 to 7, 2020. FUNDACIÓN VITAL FUNDAZIOA. Raquel Meyers (Cartagena, 1977) is an artist who defines her practice as expanded typing (KYBDslöjd) which consists of text characters and reticles becoming a brutal language, a tacit form of knowledge without immediate satisfaction. Her work aims to be a challenge against passivity, boredom and simplicity with technologies of the past such as C64, teletext and the typewriter. Since 2004 his work has been shown in art centers, galleries and festivals such as LABoral, Transmediale, Xpo Gallery, Ars Electronica, Vector Festival, La Casacend, IVAM, Matadero, BilbaoArte, iMAL, Liste Art Fair Basel, The Wrong, La Gaîté lyrique, Tokyo Blip Festival, Square Sounds Melbourne, VISION'R, Mapping, Cimatics, LEV, MFRU, BEK, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, MID_E, among others.  See full CV >  

The 22nd Biennale of Sydney NIRIN is an artist- and First Nations-led endeavor that will bring together artists, makers, scientists, academics and thinkers from around the world. They will deliver artworks, insights, ideas and projects that challenge dominant narratives, share Indigenous knowledge, displace conventional notions of the centre and reimagine the role of the arts institution. Brook Andrew, one of Australia’s most distinguished artists, is Artistic Director of the exhibition. AC/E supports the participation of through the PICE grants of Colectivo Ayllu and Josep Grau-Garriga. For the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Colectivo Ayllu are proposing a site-specific and immersive installation at Artspace, incorporating work created during a residency at the Australian Print Workshop (APW) in August 2019. They will create a labyrinthine installation of large-format printed works with multiple stations, addressing issues of racism and coloniality. For the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, there will be a new display of Josep Grau-Garriga’s Alterpiece of the Hanged Men. This is an existing work dating back to the 1970’s, in which the artist would create epic, large-scale installations of multiple tapestries in dialogue with non-museum spaces. Presented on large, scaffolded structures, these installations would reference both religious and historical iconography in dedication to the victims of the Franco regime in Spain. Presented in a central position and reaching high up into the ceiling, a special presentation of Alterpiece of the Hanged Men will hold a pivotal position within an intervention into the Old Courts at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, a monumental space that memorialises a very difficult and oftentimes one-sided Australian history. The Biennale of Sydney is a renowned, large-scale exhibition of international contemporary art situated across multiple sites in Sydney and beyond that takes place every two years. Over nearly half a century, and twenty-one exhibitions, the Biennale of Sydney has commissioned and presented bold artistic and curatorial endeavours and showcased exceptional works of art by more than 1,800 national and international artists from more than 100 countries.

The first edition of the artistic residences that will be held at Clos de Tres Cantos in 2020 has the participation of the Spanish artist Patricia Esquivias and the curatorship of Viviana Kuri. The project mixes viticulture, oenology, gastronomy, music and plastic arts with a strong commitment to the environment and sustainable development and has been designed by CHARCO, a collective that starts from creative activity and artistic research as shared practices to develop actions to connect with the local and link with the social. This program takes place in Valle de Guadalupe, in the Mexican state of Baja California, and together with the second edition of Vena and the first of Bruma, wants to contribute to increasing the sculptural park started in 2018 in the first edition of Vena that has as its aim to give added value to one of the most important wine regions in the world and the most prominent in Mexico.

In this exhibition in one scene, artist Alvaro Urbano (Madrid, 1983) uses as a case study the celebrated Hexagon Pavilion, designed by architects José Antonio Corrales and Ramón Vázquez Molezún. The building, now languishing in a ruinous state in Madrid’s Casa de Campo park, was first presented as the Spanish Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair and is considered an important example of modern Spanish architecture. After years of abandonment, it is hard to believe what it once was and what it contained. Here—where the architecture and vegetation seem to be frozen in time, where the building itself holds a pictorial and sonic landscape that speaks of the past experiences lived within its walls, and where a pair of raccoons intermittently dwells—an endless twilight bathes the space in color and brings it to life. Like an unscripted film that captures daily existence, The Awakening constructs a parallel life for an exhausted building in order to revive seemingly dormant histories. Curator: José Esparza Chong Cuy

AC/E te invita a presentar propuestas artísticas de música y artes escénicas que puedan formar parte de la programación cultural del Pabellón de España en Expo Dubái 2020, complementando su oferta estable y otras actividades que se organicen con entidades colaboradoras.  Fin plazo de presentación: Pendiente de definir debido al estado de alarma declarado en España. La programación de actividades culturales será un complemento relevante de la oferta estable del Pabellón, orientada a contribuir al desarrollo del tema general de la Expo 2020, "Conectar mentes para construir el futuro", desde la perspectiva española. Las actividades culturales están dirigidas al público de la Expo, familiar y plural y, preferiblemente, estarán relacionadas con la cultura y tradiciones de España, expresando necesariamente respeto a las distintas culturas del mundo y predisposición al entendimiento intercultural, en las categorías de música, artes de calle, danza, teatro, talleres, exhibiciones y actividades temáticas para el público general e infantil. > Pliego de la convocatoria > ANEXO 1 - Presentación de la participación española en Expo Dubái 2020 > ANEXO 2 - Espacios para programación en el Pabellón de España > ANEXO 3 - Espacios para programación en el recinto > ANEXO 4 - Planos del recinto                       Vídeos (Canal Youtube Expo Dubái 2020) > ANEXO 5 - Programming, events and National Day Guide

Radical Citizenship - The Showroom Summit es un programa transdisciplinar del que formarán parte una serie de exposiciones, performances y talleres que culminará en un symposium internacional dividido en una serie de subtemas de carácterpolítico, social, económico, teórico y artístico con el objetivo de reinventar formas de autogobierno y acción ciudadana en el marco de la ciudad contemporánea. No aplicaACTIVIDADES:Nombre: Affection as a form of subversive architectureDescripción: Aunque fue distinguido en 2015, miembro del Real Instituto Británico de Arquitectura (RIBA también en sus siglas en inglés), el arquitecto Santiago Cirugeda —y su estudio arquitectónico Recetas Urbanas, nunca han desarrollado un proyecto en Gran Bretaña. El proyecto El afecto como forma de arquitectura subversiva parte de la invitación de la escuela Being Free, Being Me de Croydon, Londres, una plataforma educativa que promueve la democracia y el contacto con la naturaleza en el entorno pre-escolar (niños y niñas de 2 a 5 años), y del deseo de la comisaria y directora de The Showroom, Elvira Dyangani Ose, y su equipo de proponer una mirada crítica a la posibilidad del ciudadano de apropiarse de la gestión de su hábitat y su conocimiento y de participar en la toma de decisiones en el entorno social, político y educativo.Recetas Urbanas que ya colaboró con Dyangani Ose en la Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo de Gotemburgo (GIBCA), y la feria internacional ArtBASEL, en Basilea, se une de nuevo a la comisaria como parte del Summit sobre Ciudadanía Radical que The Showroom organizará el próximo año. The Showroom es una organización que en los últimos 35 años se ha comprometido con el arte vinculado a la justicia social, a la diseminación de conocimiento colectivo y a la producción de arte de naturaleza crítica. Ese interés por la colaboración entre creadores y una audiencia no vinculada al entorno artístico —o arquitectónico, en este caso, se evidencia en el proyecto El afecto como forma de arquitectura subversiva, que toma como punto de partida y como casos de estudio otros proyectos que han dado solución a necesidades de habitabilidad y convivencia en el entorno educativo. A través de una serie de talleres, presentaciones públicas, una exposición documental y un espacio forum se presentará el trabajo de otros colectivos locales e internacionales, además de desarrollarse el diseño y la producción de parte de la escuela Being Free, Being Me de Croydon, Londres, junto a padres, vecinos y voluntarios de toda índole.El afecto como forma de arquitectura subversiva es un proyecto transdisciplinar que, entendiendo la práctica arquitectónica como el medio por el que producir nuevos espacios que permitan la reconfiguración de lo social, promueve una reflexión sobre las políticas educativas, formas de autogobierno y las posibilidades de participación y decisión ciudadana en el ámbito público. En este proyecto, la práctica de la arquitectura servirá como medio para producir un lugar físico y de reflexión interviniendo el espacio de The Showroom, pero ampliando esa intervención a la esfera pública.Ese gesto, tan político como poético, cuestionará a nivel formal los parámetros en los que usualmente se diseñan los centros educativos para plantear formas de enseñanza alternativas, sirviendo a la vez como plataforma de reflexión e investigación en materia de formación, conectando proyectos pasados y futuros —del estudio y de otros agentes— y funcionando como un archivo activo, vivo, de conocimiento y metodología con una posible aplicación real, representada aquí por el proyecto Being Free, Being Me de Croydon, Londres.Fecha Inicio: 21/01/2020Fecha Fin: 08/03/2020Entidades Organizadoras: The Showroom, Goethe InstitutOtras Entidades: Goldsmiths University of London, Royal College of Art, Central Saint Martins

For her first solo exhibition in the United States, Spanish artist Dora García (b. Valladolid, 1965) focuses on her work of the recent years to open new platforms of analysis, reflection and visibility. Through a practice that prioritizes the use of performance in a participative manner, García will transform the Lois Foster Gallery into a living platform to investigate the relationship between audience, architecture and artistic work. Love with Obstacles includes both newly commissioned works and existing projects, and also features drawings, films, intervened documents and letters that will be activated through performances and readings to articulate a collective space where dialogue is central. Two newly commissioned works will be premiered at the Rose Art Museum: the film Love with Obstacles, focusing on the legacy of the extraordinary author, feminist, October revolutionary, political exile and diplomat, Alexandra Kollontai (St. Petersburg,1872– Moscow, 1952) who advocated for the sexual emancipation of women and radical equality; The Labyrinth of Female Freedom, a performance where female poetics and politics meet; and a new production of García's series Golden Sentences: the sentence "She has many names" opens the exhibition. Love with Obstacles also brings together for the first time rarely seen documents from Brandeis University Special Collections that the artist has personally selected and classified, highlighting the institution´s unique legacy of committed work to social justice and in the struggle for human rights.

Poured Architecture: Sergio Prego on Miguel Fisac establishes a dialogue between the work of the late architect Miguel Fisac (1913–2006) and the work of the artist Sergio Prego (b. 1969) and it is curated by Carlos Copertone, Patxi Eguíluz, and Iker Gil. Sergio Prego (b.1969) is a Basque sculptor and part of the generation that was formed in the experimental space Arteleku in San Sebastián, though for over two decades he has been based in New York City. During the five years he spent in Vito Acconci’s studio, Prego was the only artist in a group of engineers and architects who contributed to the work of the classic conceptual artist. Throughout his career he has questioned and reformulated his allegiance to that tradition, and the performativity and institutional criticism of the art of the 1960s, by means of video, space intervention, sculpture and pneumatic architecture. Along with ItziarOkariz, Sergio Prego represented Spain at the 2019 Venice Biennale. Miguel Fisac (1913–2006) was a key figure in Spanish architecture of the second half of the twentieth century and his works contributed to the modernization of architecture in Spain. He graduated from the School of Architecture of Madrid in 1942, and his first work was completed that same year: the Church of the Holy Spirit, built upon the remains of the auditorium of the historic Student Residence in Madrid. During a trip to Sweden, he encountered the work of Gunnar Asplund, which influenced Fisac’s architectural perspective. Always working with new materials, his style evolved over time: from abstract classicism he transitioned to using brick, which in turn he later abandoned for concrete— especially pre-stressed concrete, the method Fisac patented. Some of his most emblematic works are from this latter period, such as the Hydrographical Study Centre and the Jorba Laboratories. He was awarded the Gold Medal for Spanish Architecture (1994), the Antonio Camuñas Award (1997), and the National Architecture Award (2002).

The Cultural Center of Spain in Mexico (CCEMx) in collaboration with Acción Cultural Española, AC/E and AECID presents the exhibition "La cuestión es ir tirando"(On the Importance of Thriving). A curatorship of Angel Calvo Ulloa that brings together the work of 27 essential artists within the current panorama of contemporary Spanish art. With commissioned works and specific installations for CCEMx spaces, the exhibition covers a wide range of languages: from painting to performance, through installation, video or photography. Disciplines and names that usually do not usually coexist, with the intention of seeking that dialogue between artists and works. In the words of its curator, Angel Calvo Ulloa, "27 artists will never be a generation of Spanish art. However, 27 could be a good number to assume a brief journey that defines many of the things that are happening and that can be ascribed to a geographical demarcation and others within it. By different coincidences, the 27 seduces by its obvious nod to the generation to whose ranks some of the most powerful voices of the first half of the twentieth century in Spain were assigned, driven by their noble convictions to the trauma of exile and death. 27 is also the number of the cursed age for rock'n'roll, because rock is the thing too. " Participating artists: Alain Urrutia (Bilbao, 1981), Alex Reynolds (Bilbao, 1978), Ana H. del Amo (Cáceres, 1977), Antonio Ballester Moreno (Madrid, 1977), Belén Rodríguez (Valladolid, 1981), Carlos Maciá ( Lugo, 1977), Damián Ucieda (A Coruña, 1980), Diego Delas (Aranda de Duero, 1983), Elena Alonso (Madrid, 1981), Fermín Jiménez Landa (Pamplona, ​​1979), Fernando García (Madrid, 1975), Irene Grau (Valencia, 1986), Irma Álvarez-Laviada (Gijón, 1978), José Díaz (Madrid, 1981), Juan López (Alto Maliaño - Cantabria, 1979), Julia Spínola (Madrid, 1979), Laia Estruch (Barcelona, ​​1981 ), Leonor Serrano Rivas (Málaga, 1986), Marc Vives (Barcelona, ​​1978), Miguel Ángel Tornero (Baeza, 1978), Miren Doiz (Pamplona, ​​1980), Misha Bies Golas (Lalín, Pontevedra, 1977), Nacho Martín Silva (Madrid, 1977), Nuria Fuster (Alcoi, 1978), Patricia Gómez (Valencia, 1978) & Mª Jesús González (Valencia, 1978), Taxio Ardanaz (Pamplona, ​​1978) and Víctor Jaenada (Barcelona 1977). + info: http://bit.ly/2SgP7wv

“A JOURNEY TO THE INNER SPAIN. THE DEMOGRAPHIC QUESTION: MEMORY AND FORGOT. ” ALMA TIERRA is the result of a photographic journey that has led José Manuel Navia to explore several territories especially significant to show the demographic crisis in the inland Spain. The project is an Acción Cultural Española production that takes the form of an itinerant photography exhibition and a co-edited book with Ediciones Anómalas, with texts by Julio Llamazares. A lyrical and visual tour of that “dying world”, as Miguel Delibes called it, an inland Spain that, although hit hardly, resists to disappear completely.

The Goa Dance Residency is a not-for-profit choreographic research and dance education program created in 2017 by artist, Nathaniel Parchment and directed by Navala ‘Niku’ Chaudhari in 2019. They bring together Indian and International dancers, teachers and choreographers, to fill the gap in rigorous contemporary dance practice in India, offering 3 months of intensive training in Contemporary Dance, contact improvisation, instant composition, repertory, somatics, yoga, pranayama & meditation. AC/E, through the PICE grants, is covering the travel expenses of the Spanish guest invited to take part Álvaro Esteban. More info >

AC/E  supports the participation of Spanish artists Marc Roig Blesa and Claudia Pagès Rabal selected by the Rijksakademie to enjoy a two-year residence (January 2020 - December 2021) in their facilities. The Rijksakademie offers residencies to around fifty artists (for one year, with year extension) with the goal of providing space for research, experiment and production. Apart from facilities such as a studio, work budget and stipend, there is a research and production infrastructure. There is no standard program, predominant style or ideology. The Rijksakademie provides time, people and possibilities.

Al-Andalus is a multifaceted prism that has inspired countless approaches and revisions, from its founding to the present day. The material evidence that has survived offers insight into the principal aspects of metal in Al-Andalus, from the extraction of ore in the mines to subsequent metallurgical treatments and final manufacture, producing the most diverse objects which combine the reflection of a society, technical precision and aesthetic beauty. Metal on the Iberian Peninsula before the advent of Islam The entire peninsula is dotted with metal ore extraction deposits that have been exploited over long periods of time and are still active today, even though the intensity of mining activity has fluctuated over the centuries. Mining and metallurgical techniques Although little material evidence of mining and metallurgical activity has survived, we know a great deal thanks to treatises written by scholars, which discuss everything from mining operations and metallurgical transformation processes. The value of an object: main uses of metal The objects made of different metals and alloys are an accurate expression of the Hispano-Islamic society: even the simplest pieces tell us about their everyday life and personal habits, while the rarest and most luxurious ones illustrate the lifestyle of wealthier people. Zoomorphic bronze figures Despite the ostensible aniconism of Islam, sculpted representations of animals are quite common. Each animal was believed to have certain properties, which can be interpreted from a religious and ethical perspective or in a practical way. The Splendour of Gold and Silver Gold and silversmiths flourished in Al-Andalus, as we can tell from the pieces that have survived and the accounts of contemporary chroniclers. The richness and technical virtuosity is seen in the paucity of objects that have come down to us.

The jury selects the illustrator and comic strip artist Anabel Colazo to enjoy this residence which aims to promote creation in the field of graphic novels. The selection committee has especially valued the project presented for its artistic qualities and its innovative character. Anabel Colazo, born in Ibiza and settled in Valencia, debuted in 2015 with "El cristal imposible" (DeHavilland). He has participated in the Nimio and Paranoidland fanzines. In 2017 he published "Close Encounters" (La Cúpula). See portfolio> AC/E and the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l’image, with the collaboration of the French Embassy in Spain, organized this six-month residency to be enjoyed between December 2019 and May 2020. The aim of the residency is to promote creation specifically in the field of graphic novels. For this purpose it facilitates the completion of a project chosen for its artistic values and innovative nature in this field. The chosen candidate enjoys a residency at the Maison des Auteurs in Angoulême (France). The Maison is part of the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l’image (International city of comic books and image), which features a comic book museum, library, specialised bookshops and cinema, among other services, together with the Festival International de la bande dessinée, making Angoulême the European capital of graphic novels. OPEN CALL Until 14 June 2019 The residency for the chosen candidate includes: - Accommodation in a 3-room apartment to be shared with another resident (two bedrooms) in the centre of Angoulême (electricity, gas and water to be paid by the candidate). - Use of a workshop (individual or collective) equipped with material for graphic creation at the Maison des Auteurs in Angoulême. - 1,000 euros per month to cover upkeep, local transport expenses, and water, gas and electricity consumption. Any expenditure on materials or shipment of works will be borne by the selected authors. - Return train or plane ticket in economy class from their place of residence in Spain to Paris, and a return train ticket from Paris to Angoulême. Residency dates From December 2017 to the end of May 2018. Application / Requirements To be considered for the residency award, candidates must submit: - A project for a graphic novel, in narrative form, with an approximate timeframe for its completion. - A description of the project they are going to work on during the residency: a text of 10,000 characters at most, accompanied by drawings, sketches and designs and three complete consecutive pages of the project (dossier to be submitted in computerised form). - A curriculum vitae, to which some of their most representative works should be annexed. - A cover letter. - A sworn statement that the candidate is the sole author of the works submitted. The application must be sent to residenciasliteratura@accioncultural.es Conditions Candidates must: - Be aged over 18 and not have previously benefited from a residency at the Maison des Auteurs in Angoulême. - Be of Spanish nationality or hold a NIE (Identification number for foreigners) issued by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior. - Submit proof they hold a European health card or medical insurance covering any possible medical needs that may arise during the residency period Selection process AC/E’s advisory committee in Spain will shortlist a number of candidates. At the second stage, the jury of La Maison des Auteurs in Angoulême will select the final candidate and formalise the residency conditions directly with the chosen candidate. The jury who make the selection will be made up of prestigious graphic artists, screenwriters and critics and their decision will be final.

The exhibition commemorates the centenary of the creation, by the Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas (JAE), of the Instituto-Escuela, the most ambitious "reform essay" of public education in the stages before the university developed until then in Spain and one of the most outstanding pedagogical experiences of interwar Europe. A journey through the history of the institution that brings together works by authors of modernity and historical avant-garde such as Darío de Regoyos, Picasso, Torres García, Barradas, Alberto Sánchez, Benjamín Palencia, Maruja Mallo, García Lorca, Francisco Bores, Alberti, Moreno Villa or Ángel Ferrant, who dialogue with current artists such as Darío Villalba, Eduardo Arroyo, Blanca Muñoz, Emilia Azcárate, Antonio Ballester or Chema Madoz. The Instituto-Escuela was part of a modernization project of Spanish society promoted by the Institución Libre de Enseñanza (ILE) from 1876, with the aim of generalizing a new education and promoting scientific and cultural progress as the only means capable of place Spain among the most advanced countries.

This second edition of CELA (Connecting Emerging Literaty Artists) brings together eleven European cultural institutions from ten different countries and has, once again, the support and funding of the European Union through the Creative Europe programme. AC/E supports the Spanish partner Escuela de Escritores, which in September 2019 selected the three young writers and nine translators who form the Spanish representation in this second edition of the programme. The second edition of CELA, which runs between 2019 and 2023, allows 30 writers, 80 translators and 6 professionals from the world of editing to access a training, editing and promotion program in which some of the best writing schools participate of the continent (the Scuola Holden of Turin, School of Writers), literary festivals (Krakowskie Biuro Festiwalowe (Krakow, Poland) and cultural companies led by the Dutch literary producer Wintertuin (Nijmegen, Netherlands), Huis deBuren and Passa Porta (Brussels, Belgium), Goga (Novo Mesto, Slovenia), the Association of Publishers of Romania (Bucharest, Romania), the Czech Literary Center (Prague, Czech Republic), the Municipal Chamber of Óbidos (Óbidos, Portugal) and the KROKODIL Association (Belgrade , Serbia). For more info>  

IN 2020 we celebrate Benito Pérez Galdós, (1843, Las Palmas—1920, Madrid), a writer who was regarded as the greatest Spanish novelist since Miguel de Cervantes. His enormous output of short novels chronicling the history and society of 19th-century Spain earned him comparison with Honoré de Balzac and Charles Dickens. Born into a middle-class family, Pérez Galdós went to Madrid in 1862 to study law but soon abandoned his studies and took up journalism. After the success of his first novel, La Fontana de Oro (1870; “The Fountain of Gold”), he began a series of novels retelling Spain’s history from the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) to the restoration of the Bourbons in Spain (1874). The entire cycle of 46 novels would come to be known as the Episodios Nacionales (1873–1912; “National Episodes”). In these works Galdós perfected a unique type of historical fiction that was based on meticulous research using memoirs, old newspaper articles, and eyewitness accounts. The resulting novels are vivid, realistic, and accurate accounts of historical events as they must have appeared to those participating in them. The Napoleonic occupation of Spain and the struggles between liberals and absolutists preceding the death of Ferdinand VII in 1833 are respectively treated in the first two series of 10 novels each, all composed in the 1870s. In the 1880s and ’90s Pérez Galdós wrote a long series of novels dealing with contemporary Spain, beginning with Doña Perfecta (1876). Known as the Novelas españolas contemporáneas (“Contemporary Spanish Novels”), these books were written at the height of the author’s literary maturity and include some of his finest works, notably La desheredada (1881; The Disinherited Lady) and his masterpiece, the four-volume novel Fortunata y Jacinta (1886–87), a study of two unhappily married women from different social classes. Pérez Galdós’ earlier novels in the series show a reforming liberal zeal and an intransigent opposition to Spain’s ubiquitous and powerful clergy, but after the 1880s he displayed a newly tolerant acceptance of Spain’s idiosyncracies and a greater sympathy for his country. He demonstrated a phenomenal knowledge of Madrid, of which he showed himself the supreme chronicler. He also displayed a deep understanding of madness and abnormal psychological states. Pérez Galdós gradually came to admit more elements of spirituality into his work, eventually accepting them as an integral part of reality, as evident in the important late novels Nazarín (1895) and Misericordia (1897; Compassion).

Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) collaborates with the Chambers of the Book and the Spanish Confederation of Booksellers' Associations (Cegal) in this project launched by the Ministry of Culture and Sports in 2016 that provides bookstores with a Seal quality. It is an initiative that aims to help reactivate the retail channel and provide a professional structure for bookstores to meet the demands of quality and cultural reference demanded by Spanish society. The aim of this Seal of Quality is to consolidate bookstores as spaces for meeting, reflection and discussion in the communities in which they are located, through their conversion into cultural and social spaces; to promote the diversity of bibliographic heritage through the protection of a network of bookstores that offer both fast-track books and books in the background. An initiative that also establishes a mechanism to improve the economic situation of bookstores and encourage them to continue introducing improvements in customer service while expanding their cultural offer.