Discovering Madrid’s Open Air Sculpture Museum: Restoration and Accessibility Project

Madrid is one of those cities where it is a pleasure to get lost. Squares with statues of prominent figures, parks that were palace gardens, streets full of history and unique buildings… And suddenly, an Open Air Sculpture Museum! The idea may be very current, but in reality this exhibition space has been open to the public since 1972.

Located on the Paseo de la Castellana, under the overpass that joins the streets of Juan Bravo and Eduardo Dato, its creation was the work of the artist Eusebio Sempere and the engineers behind the bridge, José Antonio Fernández Ordóñez and Julio Martínez Calzón. It brings together sculptures by 17 top-level Spanish artists, who donated their works to form this excellent collection of abstract art: Juan Miró, Andreu Alfaro, Eduardo Chillida, Martín Chirino, Amadeo Gabino, Rafael Leoz, Marcel Marti, Pablo Palazuelo, Manuel Rivera, Gerardo Rueda, Pablo Serrano, Francisco Sobrino, Gustavo Torner and Eusebio Sempere himself, among others.

Update

An open-air museum has drawbacks in terms of conservation. The inclement weather coupled with pollution take their toll on the surface of the sculptures; vandalism threatens the integrity of the works and the space; animal droppings cause corrosion; and, in general, the passage of time makes restoration work inevitable.
In 2022, the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage carried out an exhaustive study on the state of conservation of all the pieces that make up the collection of this museum, which pointed to the need to act urgently on two of them: the sculpture Mobileby Eusebio Sempere, and Mother Ububy Joan Miró.

Sempere’s sculpture is the one that presented the greatest deterioration: oxidation, detachment of elements, wear of anchors and corrosion. Its restoration aimed at cleaning, stabilizing and replacing elements began in May of last year, and the work lasted three months with an investment of 14,600 euros.

For its part, the intervention on Miró’s sculpture was carried out on site between May 9 and 11, 2022, consisting of cleaning the bronze, the inhibition of copper oxides and, finally, its protection.

In addition, in 2021, the council launched a project to improve the museum space with the fundamental objective of complying with universal accessibility regulations, improving environmental quality and the urban landscape, as well as renewing urban services. With an investment of 2.5 million euros, sidewalks, public spaces and roads were expanded and renovated; separator islands were relocated on the side roads of the promenade to house the EMT stops out of sight of the museum and avoid obstacles; the side of the stairs that join the three levels of the museum were transformed into ramps, in addition to homogenizing the construction materials of the museum environment.

museum under the bridge

The Castellana Outdoor Sculpture Museum is located under the bridge that engineers José Antonio Fernández Ordóñez and Julio Martínez Calzón built to join Juan Bravo and Eduardo Dato streets and which was inaugurated in 1970.

After the Second World War, the new museological currents pointed to the creation of outdoor exhibition spaces. Following these postulates, both engineers responsible for the bridge and the artist Eusebio Sempere devised an exhibition space under the flyover in order to bring Spanish abstract art closer to the public and to be an area for recreation and rest. The project was approved in 1971. The collection would be made up of works donated by artist friends of Eusebio Sempere. The museum opened to the public in 1972, without an official inauguration due to the controversy unleashed by the assembly of the stranded mermaidby Chillida. Due to its 6,150 kilos of concrete and the fact that it had to be suspended from the deck of the bridge, the City Council, ignoring favorable reports, decided that it should be lowered for security reasons in 1973. The sculpture began a long journey through Spain that ended in 1978. , when it returned to its original location.

The museum is located in an urban environment where functional elements -bridge, access, pedestrian crossings, etc.- together with the collection of artistic works form a unitary whole. With an area of ​​4,200 m2 and distributed over three levels, we can find sculptures by the most important Spanish avant-garde artists, which bring us closer to the exciting world of abstraction, where aesthetics, the play of light and movement and reverie they shake hands.

The Castellana Outdoor Sculpture Museum was the first of its kind to be built in the country. Later, in Madrid itself, other similar projects were developed, such as the Juan Carlos I Park in the Campo de las Naciones (1992) or the Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition of the Conde Duque Cultural Center (1993).

Know in depth the Museum of Outdoor Sculptures of La Castellana.

More information about the museum accessibility project and on the restoration of two sculptures from his collection.