Six punk fans upcycled by designers and artists in Madrid

Exhibition after exhibition, event after event, the traits of the new Madrid design scene become more and more delineated: collaborative projects, rejection for serialisation and hybridization with the other plastic arts. Expedient for this new collective initiative is the arrival of summer, when in Madrid – as in most major cities in Southern Europe – the fan hunt begins. A cheap and banal object becomes seasonally precious and almost unobtainable.

The curators of the initiative, Teresa Fernández Pello and Matteo Guarnaccia, invited four other artists and designers (Miguel Leiro, Marta Ochoa, Esther Merinero and Geray Mena) to transform second-hand fans using a defined set of materials: wooden strips for a maximum length of 4 meters, 5 meters of black and red wires and a traditional black electrical socket. To these elements each of the six authors added their own personal touch. The work culminated with the “Venta de ventiladores”, an event held in the independent gallery WanderingOnes, in the Carabanchel district, where the design pieces were sold at the symbolic price of €49.90.