17 Nov 08 by Maria Xagorari
The Club de Madrid, officially or not quite, was formed in December 2007, when I decided to join Karen in Madrid and Hanjo thought it might be a good idea to join us too. Hillel was not there in person but in our thoughts and our talks, so he is the member of honor of EL Club de Madrid. We had plans to share some of our moments there with you but it seems like none of us got the time to do al the photo uploading. So, now, after the second encounter of the Club in Syros, Greece, for the Xagorari-Kruse show, I thought I'd publish some images. ArtProcess was the place it all started and we are greatful for that.

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Maris and Karen in discussion

Coffee time at the museum. By the way, the Spanish make MUCH better coffee than the Italians.

El Club de Madrid in Syros, Greece
El Club de Madrid in Syros, Greece
Maria and Hanjo sightseeing

Well, we did see better artworks than that, but no photographic documentation was allowed. Goya? Oh, that was love at first site

El Club de Madrid in Syros, Greece
El Club de Madrid in Syros, Greece
Karen and Hanjo in a relaxed mood

Paellia and Rioja wine... I was too drunk that day to be included in the picture.

El Club de Madrid in Syros, Greece
El Club de Madrid in Syros, Greece
Karen and Maria arranging works

Syros. Karen transported her paintings in a tube, as Hanjo had once suggested to people who were travelling to Trapani. The canvases arrived safe and sound and we streched them at my place.

That was a lot of work so Nicoletta made sure we got all our energy back.

El Club de Madrid in Syros, Greece
El Club de Madrid in Syros, Greece
Gallery exhibition of the paintings

The show.

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19 Jan 12 23:06

That sure looks like it was an interesting show. Nice space too. Has El Club de Madrid got up to any more activities following that significant event? I see Maria's and Karen's work in the photos. Did you really leave your third club member out of the exhibition?

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20 Jan 12 17:21

Hello dear JP! Well the third member was a gentleman and helped with all the hardware and hunging ang stuff. And of course we had a great time. We didn't have any more shows after that, but this is just due to distance and all the problems this may create when it comes to moving artwork. I must say that our friendship is alive and well and we are greatful to AP and Trapani for this. How are you dear?

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21 Jan 12 11:18

Well, from what I remember the disaster of ap in Trapani to have been, at least some good seems to have come from it (as indicated in your SLOG). Maybe I should get onto Antonio for a second attempt? - but a second attempt a lot more controlled (and financed up front - as I don't have any more money to underwrite costs) this time. Actually I'd be extremely reluctant to do anything like that again. However, it does appear to be important for artists to come together for some sort of collective endeavour, as El Club de Madrid have demonstrated in this instance. Actually, I've been thinking lately that ap is really a site for just a core group of 4-6 artists (and even they are becoming less involved as the years pass) - Xagorari, Kruse, Schmidt, Kagan, sometimes Leventhal. Other than Arnold, all of you met in Trapani (and even Arnold had the good sense to go visit Hillel at home in Toronto), so it seems face-to-face meeting is important. Nevertheless, I've got to look to ways to expand on this tiny group in order to avoid ap disintegrating through lack of real purpose and dwindling individual contribution to comment and documenting the art process. As you know, I was ready to close down artprocess after the Trapani experience, and figured I'd just count it as a worthwhile experiment while it had lasted. A few messages of support made me decide to keep it online, nevertheless I avoided developing the site for years afterwards. I'm now beginning to think that it may be important to maintain as many websites for artists made by fellow artists (as opposed to art websites provided by the art business) as possible, a sort of independent artists' platform, and that maybe ap still has a part to play in this context. As for me, I've been enjoying living alone in a tumbledown thatched cottage in rural Ireland for the past year [LINK]http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=ladys+island+wexford&sll=32.403922,-80.674072&sspn=0.076524,0.130978&ie=UTF8&hq=ladys+island&hnear=Wexford,+County+Wexford,+Ireland&t=h&layer=c&cbll=52.20997,-6.376983&panoid=PDh1eHMJtRtb2TrDSHgk6w&cbp=12,186.97,,0,4.7&ll=52.210001,-6.376874&spn=0.000925,0.003862&z=19[/LINK]. It would make a cute little gallery one day.

El Club de Madrid in Syros, Greece
El Club de Madrid in Syros, Greece
Viewing the show

The show.

El Club de Madrid in Syros, Greece
El Club de Madrid in Syros, Greece
Karen being interviewed

Local TV and the door of my little school.

El Club de Madrid in Syros, Greece
El Club de Madrid in Syros, Greece
Maria and Karen enjoying the vista

Ano Syros calling ArtProcess. A kiss from us to you.

El Club de Madrid in Syros, Greece
El Club de Madrid in Syros, Greece
Municipal buildings in the city

The two sides of one island.

El Club de Madrid in Syros, Greece
El Club de Madrid in Syros, Greece
The contract

This is the short story of the Club De Madrid. Thanks for your friendship my friends.