This present was chosen as a part of Madrid Oomph—a roundup of the most effective modern artwork exhibitions and occasions held by galleries, museums, and establishments on the town throughout February 2023 on the event of ARCOmadrid artwork truthful. Curated by Mousse.

Distance between pharmacies.

I hold the reminiscence of Antonio and his son, poor as they had been, sitting on the curb of a sidewalk in Rome throughout a break of their seek for a bicycle, important for the daddy if he needed to offer for his household. I’m speaking about a picture from Vittorio de Sica’s Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thief), one of many best movies of all time. My father was impressed—I might even say that it affected him—when he noticed it within the winter of 1950 and maybe he got here to establish with that man from Rome who was attempting, like him, to flee from absolute distress.

Not lengthy after that winter, once I was seven years previous, I accompanied my father by the higher a part of Barcelona, the place he used to make use of a measuring tape to find out the size of the sidewalks and the gap between pharmacies, because the legislation required a really particular variety of meters to authorize a brand new one. My father was relying on the promise of monetary assist from a relative in case he discovered a spot the place it was allowed to put in a brand new pharmacy. Each of us marched cowering, virtually kneeling at instances, at all times near the bottom, particularly my father along with his measuring tape. Lengthy earlier than I mythologized the solitary walks of Rousseau and Robert Walser, my father and I walked in a definite approach, on the mercy of the compass of that measuring tape on which all the pieces depended so closely.

My clearest reminiscence: close to Bonanova sq., my father, after placing the tape in his pocket and ending the day, immediately requested me what I needed to be once I grew up. It was a really frequent query requested of youngsters in these days, as a result of there was no future.

— “Circus director,” I mentioned.
And to at the present time I nonetheless surprise why I mentioned “director”.

&

“I’ll not be capable to cross Rue Vaneau with out pondering of Vila-Matas,” wrote Maurice Nadeau, after studying Physician Pasavento. And since then I can not stroll down rue Vaneau with out pondering of Nadeau. At first look, it’s a very brief and quiet avenue the place nothing occurs. However in such a brief stretch one can discover there the home of André Gide, the Syrian embassy, the gorgeous mansion of Chanaleilles, the Dupeyroux pharmacy, the Lodge de Suède, Marx’s first condo in Paris. . . Someday, after darkish, within the uninhabited home in entrance of the Dupeyroux pharmacy I noticed two anxious silhouettes, very tight and motionless in one of many two lighted home windows. I’ve not forgotten that both.

— Enrique Vila-Matas

at Albarrán Bourdais, Madrid
till April 22, 2023