Local Expert
Abha Malpani
I'm an Indian girl living, loving and lost in Madrid -- I've been here over a year now. Here I write and rant for a handful of travel-blogs, and teach English to pay my rent. When I'm not trying to…
I'm an Indian girl living, loving and lost in Madrid -- I've been here over a year now. Here I write and rant for a handful of travel-blogs, and teach English to pay my rent. When I'm not trying to work, I'm normally at a bar eating tapas and drinking beer, or shaking it on some dance floor in the city.
I have previously lived in India, England, Dubai, Australia, and Valencia in Spain. All the cities I've lived in are awesome but Madrid takes the cake. I can be contacted at abha.malpani@gmail.com
Other blogs I write for: www.gadling.com, www.vagablogging.net, www.writtenroad.com, www.mapmagazine.com
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Caixa Forum
The latest thing in Madrid that's on everyone's tongue is the Caixa Forum. Officially inaugurated mid-February this year, it's a new community cultural centre with a spectacular structure in the centre of Madrid, right opposite the Botanic Gardens on Paseo del Prado. In case you were wondering, the name doesn't mean anything except that it's sponsored by Catalan bank La Caixa.
Designed by award-winning Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron (who also designed the London Tate Museum) in a former electrical power station dating from the 1900's. It has been converted into a modern structure with two floors underground, and five above; the outside of it is draped with corroded cast iron. The building took six years to restore at a cost of €64 million. On the right of the building there is a wall designed using 15,000 plants by French botanist Patrick Blanc. The forum is worth visiting just to see the building and the wall.
The three main floors of the building are where there are regular exhibitions. Currently the second and third floors have a display of 45 religious painting from Florence's Uffizi gallery that include works of Botticelli and Luca Giordano.
The first floor is mainly a public relations effort to demonstrate La Caixa's humanitarian efforts all over the world. It is filled with photos from its programmes in third-world countries alongside graphs of how they have increased their spend for such causes over the past 10 years or so -- in other words -- you can skip this section. This area also screens a short documentary of their work in developing countries, should you be specially curious.
One thing you should definitley keep an eye out for are the cultural concerts that take place here mainly Thursdays to Sundays. Alternative percussionsists and dancers are known to perform regularly under the wing of the Forum.
The Caixa Forum is open every day from 10am-8pm and entrance is free; worth a pass by if you are in the area and not "museumed-out"! (Check out this link for complete location and contact details).