Madrid, at the Prado, works leave the museum and scatter around the city

In Madrid, the Prado Museum decides to bring its works out of the halls of the institution and scatter them throughout the city, on street corners, at bus stops, in parks. Of course, we are not talking about original paintings, but faithful life-size reproductions, with the aim of enticing Madrileños to visit the largest museum in Spain’s capital (but not only). It is the initiative titled A la vuelta de la esquina (“Around the corner”), which aims to surprise passers-by to “capture them with the power and beauty of art, in order to spur them to visit the museums,” reads a Prado note.

With this initiative, the Prado has therefore decided to take to the streets as it has never done before: after the pandemic (during the second and third waves however, the Prado was never closed, unlike the Italian institutions, and this is true for several other Spanish museums) there is a need to bring the public back to the museums, but the Prado does not wait for people to come on their own and therefore chooses to go out to meet them. A la vuelta de la esquina was conceived in collaboration with Madrid’s municipal government and partners Iberia and Telefónica, which supported the museum in the creation of the twenty or so reproductions, all, as mentioned, life-size: they will remain on the streets of Madrid for three weeks, during which time they will keep Madrileños company in their everyday lives.

Not only that: each reproduction is presented as if the painting had really just come out of the museum, complete with a frame, an illustrative caption and a QR Code containing more information for those who wish to learn more. The idea was immediately appreciated by the public, as can also be seen in the comments to the YouTube video in which the steps involved in making the reproductions are shown. And the museum of course invites all users to share photos of passersby in front of the works on social media with the hashtag #VuelvealPrado, or “return to the Prado.” The initiative was launched last May 18, and since then Rubens, Titian, Zurbarán, Velázquez, El Greco, Sofonisba Anguissola and other great artists are showing themselves to the public with the hope that the invitation to see the originals at the museum will be taken up. Below is a selection of images (all © Museo Nacional del Prado)

A la vuelta de la esquina

A la vuelta de la esquina

A la vuelta de la esquina

A la vuelta de la esquina

A la vuelta de la esquina

A la vuelta de la esquina

Madrid, at the Prado, works leave the museum and scatter around the city

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