iMuseo de Historia de MadridMalasaña
Madrid entre épocas. Fotomontajes de Andrés Valentín Pérez Serén
This exhibition has ended.
Refotography exhibition pairing 40 historical and present-day photographs of the same Madrid street corners, on show in the Patio Dorado.
Museum websiteMore in Madrid
Sophia Loren and Cary Grant are eating ice cream outside Retiro's Puerta de la Independencia on 15 August 1957, and the same gate in 2021 is fused into the frame. All 40 works are built this way: Pérez Serén found the exact spot an old black-and-white photo was taken, shot it again and merged the two digitally.
They fill the museum's Patio Dorado and span 1864 to 1983, from the Prado before its north staircase existed to an anti-NATO protest in Vallecas. Loren and Grant picked the holiday because the city was quiet, so Madrid has been emptying out for the Asunción since at least 1957. Then you reach the 1909 Fuencarral street scene and recognise the baroque doorway behind the rag-and-bone man: you walked through it to get here.
The history blog De Marcha por la Historia found it impossible not to stand comparing details. Entry is free with no booking, English labels are a PDF on the museum's page, and it closes 18 October.
Look for
Loren and Grant with ice cream, 1957
Look for the two Hollywood stars on a quiet 15 August stroll in front of the Puerta de la Independencia, out from the Castellana Hilton.
Hotel Roma on opening day, 1915
Shot from Calle Virgen de los Peligros on 3 October 1915, it shows the Capitoline wolf crowning the cornice of one of Gran Vía's first buildings.
The museum's own doorway, 1909
Street sweepers, a rag-and-bone man with his cart and a horse car pass in front of Pedro de Ribera's churrigueresque facade on Fuencarral.
Snow on Gran Vía, 7 December 1960
A parked car outside No. 30 is coated in snow, with the Capitol building and La Adriática behind it.
Left-hand traffic on Fernando VI
At No. 12 of Calle Fernando VI, pedestrians and vehicles keep to the left, as Madrid did before right-hand driving became mandatory in 1924.
Good for
- Cheap Culture
- Locals Who've Seen It All
- Rainy Days
Skip if
You want vintage prints: every image is a digital fusion of an old photo and a new one.
Also at Museo de Historia de Madrid
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
8
- Museo de Historia de MadridLuis García (Zaqarbal), via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Roberta Marrero. Yo soy la navaja y la heridaCourtesy of Museo del Romanticismo
- Women Artists: Pathways through Pre-Raphaelitism (1850-1914)© Musée d’Orsay, dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Sophie Crépy
- The Other Face of the Avant-GardeCourtesy of Fundación MAPFRE – Sala Recoletos
- Museo del RomanticismoPablo Linés / Wikimedia Spain, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Espacio Fundación TelefónicaLev (Flickr: _lev_), via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Fundación MAPFRE – Sala RecoletosBeautyriver1010, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San FernandoStanislav Kozlovskiy (Ctac), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0