Madrid Design Festival 2024 unveiled its guest project: "Castilla La Mancha Designs. Back to the essence", an exhibition of craftsmanship in a contemporary key.

Castilla-La Mancha is one of Spain's greatest historical references for craftsmanship. Ceramics, textiles, jewellery, glass, forging, cutlery, furniture and leather are some of the materials that, together with their techniques and tools, have given rise to one of the greatest craft legacies in the country, thanks to trades and traditions that are still in force and which, through design, are redrawn as contemporary without losing their identity. 

"Castilla-La Mancha Designs. Back to the essence" is an exhibition curated by Tomás Alía that presents all this knowledge and expertise in a contemporary key, with exclusive pieces created for the exhibition. A project made to measure for Madrid Design Festival that is presented as the guest project of this edition. 



"This exhibition aims to provoke, dialogue, generate content and reflect on the knowledge and know-how of the crafts of Castilla la Mancha and its new creative talents, based on centuries of tradition, artisan mastery and knowledge that are combined in their workshops with new creative and fresh voices. My job as curator is to bring together the greatest exponents of this land around traditional crafts and present their work in a contemporary key."

Tomás Alía



Its selection of pieces conveys the plurality and avant-garde of contemporary craftsmanship in Castile-La Mancha and projects the creative effervescence of a region where its creators investigate new materials, techniques and designs that draw on centuries-old traditions and influences.

Under an audiovisual thread created by the filmmaker and photographer Eugenio Recuenco, the exhibition welcomes visitors with projections that immerse them in the artisan workshops, in their raw materials, in their processes and creative details, in the sounds of craftsmanship and in the emotions that are awakened when working with their hands. 

In the centre of the exhibition, a time capsule made of wicker houses two of the region's great artisan masterpieces: the ceramics of Pedro Mercedes, a great reference point for ceramics in Castilla la Mancha, and 18th century textiles from Lagartera. The roots of a know-how that continues to dazzle the world today.



Based on a selection of artists and pieces from the area, the exhibition explores the communicating vessels between music, image and aesthetics, with the aim of blurring the boundaries between disciplines and of creating, reformulating, professionalising and making visible, but above all, of materialising, in order to be able to interpret contemporaneity.

Plural identities, professionalisation, cultural value, excellence and origin go hand in hand in this exhibition of exciting initiatives, groundbreaking artists and lovers of the pure. The participating authors include Aitor Saraiba, Wool Dreamers, Fernando Garcés, Fernando Alcalde and Marian Delgado.

Address  Fernán Gómez Centro Cultural de la Villa - Madrid, Spain