iPalacio de CristalRetiro
Fardo, by Andrea Canepa
A printed tarp wrapping the Palacio de Cristal's glass facade during restoration, inspired by pre-Columbian Paracas funerary textile bundles.
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On the main front of the Palacio de Cristal, the bundle is tied shut. Walk round and its layers come loose panel by panel, until back at the start it has wrapped itself up again. Andrea Canepa based this restoration tarp on the funeral bundles of Peru's Paracas culture, who wrapped their dead in layer upon layer of worked textile.
There are 30 panels, each over six metres tall. Canepa painted tied fabrics in oil, photographed the paintings and printed them at building scale, so up close you're looking at a photo of brushstrokes of cloth. Some panels carry pre-Hispanic motifs, others are plain colour. The museum compares it to a praxinoscope, an early animation toy, and here you are the part that moves. Most restoration tarps in Madrid sell you a phone; this one is a Paracas burial wrapping.
It's free and outdoors. The palace is shut for the works, so come for one slow lap of the building. The museum lists it until 1 January 2027.
Look for
The tied bundle on the main front
Start at the main facade, where the bundle is shown knotted shut before any layer comes loose.
The unwrapping, lap by lap
Walk the perimeter and the cloth sheds layers frame by frame, then closes up again as you get back to the start.
Painted cloth at six metres
Up close the panels show oil brushstrokes of tied, layered fabric, photographed and printed more than six metres tall.
Motif panels beside plain ones
Look for panels carrying pre-Hispanic patterns set between flat monochrome stretches, like fragments of a textile mosaic.
Good for
- Cheap Culture
- Out-Of-Town Guests
Skip if
You want to go inside the glasshouse: it's shut for restoration, and the work wraps only the outside.
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
7
- Fardo, by Andrea CanepaCourtesy of Palacio de Cristal
- Fernando Sánchez Castillo: The Wayward PearlMuseo Reina Sofía
- Palacio de Cristalvpogarcia, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Palacio de VelázquezJ.L. De Diego, Public domain
- Museo Nacional de Artes DecorativasLuis García (Zaqarbal), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Museo del PradoEmilio J. Rodríguez Posada (Emijrp), via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
- CaixaForum MadridDraceane / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0