Diana Larrea, Idealist Award for Contemporary Art 2024

• "Urban Interventions: Madrid" is the award-winning project of the Madrid artist who intervenes in public spaces in the city of Madrid.

Madrid-based artist Diana Larrea, renowned for her exploration of urban spaces, has been awarded the Idealist Contemporary Art Prize 2024. Her project "Urban Interventions: Madrid" has been selected for its visual impact and its ability to provoke reflections on the city's public spaces.

The exhibition, curated by Elisa Hernando and coordinated by Global Art presents a series of video art works and documentary photographs of Larrea's interventions in different parts of Madrid. The artistic proposal is made up of three projects: "Caso Público: Intrusos" (Public Case: Intruders)

It challenges the perception of space by placing human barriers in the middle of the street, forcing passers-by to adapt (and modify their route) in unexpected situations.

"Public Case: Blue Zone", where the artist transforms the urban space by covering parked vehicles with blue covers, thus questioning the aesthetic order of the city.

"Distinguished Streets" where he points out the abandonment in the Madrid neighborhood of Lavapiés through the installation of plaques that highlight the indifference of the municipal authorities in these streets.

And finally, "Let's fall in LOVE!" is an urban intervention located on the high viaduct over Segovia Street in Madrid, which is known for being one of the scenarios traditionally chosen by suicides in Madrid to jump into the void. Larrea proposes a simple play on words in a mocking tone to refer to that feeling of free fall implicit in all falling in love.

Diana Larrea's artistic proposal maintains a personal commitment to certain symbolic conflicts, both contemporary and from the historical past, creating reflections in the citizen regarding public spaces.

The idealista Contemporary Art Award is an initiative of the leading real estate marketplace in Spain, Italy and Portugal with which the company wants to recognize the talent and vision of young creators and seeks to encourage and support contemporary artistic production. In its first edition, 2018, the award went to the Basque artist Ismael Iglesias (Durango, 1974), with the work "Streetfighter"; the second, in 2019, was won by the Huesca artist David Latorre (Huesca, 1973) with his project "Arquitectura, Cuerpo e Indumentaria"; in 2020 there was no call due to the pandemic and in 2021 Jorge Yeregui (Santander, 1975) won the award for "Comunidades". Cuban artist Hamlet Lavastida (Havana, 1983) was awarded the idealist prize in 2022. And in the 2023 edition the winner was Monica de Miranda (Porto, 1976) for her project "South Circular".

Why the idealist award

idealista has been supporting national and international authors for years and promoting the artistic production of contemporary art through the acquisition of works of art that reflect the impact of "the urban" in people's lives. Its collection includes works by artists such as Panos Kokkinias (Athens, Greece, 1965), Teresa Margolles (Culiacán, Mexico, 1963), Maider López (San Sebastián, Spain, 1975), Olaf Breuning (Schaffhausen, Switzerland, 1970) and Massimo Vitali (Como, Italy, 1944). The works participate in an itinerant route between the company's offices in Barcelona, Lisbon, Madrid, Malaga and Milan. For the creation of the "idealista Award", and the coordination of the award in future editions, idealista has selected Elisa Hernando, director of Global Art, who has curated Mónica de Miranda's intervention at SIMA Madrid.

About Arte Global

Arte Global is an international art consultancy dedicated to art collecting and cultural management projects for institutions, companies and individuals. Founded in 2003 by Elisa Hernando, Arte Global has reference clients such as Uría Menéndez Abogados, Fundación Banco Santander, ARCOmadrid, Repsol, idealista, among others.

About Diana Larrea

Diana Larrea (Madrid, 1972) has exhibited in institutions and museums such as the Museu Nacional do Conjunto Cultural da República (Brazil), the National Centre of Contemporary Art in Moscow (Russia), the Kunsthall Charlottenborg in Copenhagen (Denmark), the Espai 13 of the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona and the EACC Espai d'Art Contemporani de Castelló, among others. She is currently represented by the Espacio Mínimo Gallery (Madrid).

His works

We invite you to see some of Diana Larrea's work.