Hipster Malaga in one day
WHAT TO SEE AND WHAT TO HEAR
CAC Malaga : turning art into a mainstream affair
If there is any entity that has pulled the cart of this new and avant-garde Malaga , that is without a doubt the Center for Contemporary Art, which has spent ten years putting the city in bold, and in capital letters, within the most innovative artistic scene. An example: kaws (the one with the giant figures with hands and Mickey ears) I knew the center before exhibiting there because he had bought his catalogs in New York!
In addition, this Kunsthaus - dynamic and open to new trends and social concerns - not only emphasizes the most important artists of the moment (almost always with unpublished exhibitions) but also he has a very good eye for betting on local and international creators who will write the future. Right now it is the turn of one of the most recognized performers worldwide, Marina Abramović (the queue to hug her at the opening was thousands of people), and in recent years they have also passed through its rooms, with more shares on Facebook than the videos of caiditas, works by Banksy, El Roto, Andy Warhol, Tracey Emin, Ron Mueck... Drop by any day (except Monday) and click in front of your favorite painting. Yes, you can take photos and entering is free!
Kaws at CAC Malaga
** SOHO , at the peak of Street Art **
Malaga is a city with a port, and as such, it has its neighborhood of sailors and bad living. But for a few years now, the area, in the heat of the CAC, the bonuses for opening new businesses in the area and the initiatives such as MAUS has become known as SOHO and has housed -only during the last year- the works of more than 100 artists from all over the world.
Some, like the graffiti (by Boa Mistura, D*Face, Obey, Dal East and many other giants of the art) still remain not only on its walls but also in the urban art gallery that Google has just presented worldwide. And this is not nonsense: Malaga is the only Spanish city, and one of the few chosen in the whole planet, that appear in it.
MAUS Urban Art Festival at Soho Málaga (Spain) from LatramaLab on Vimeo .
In the neighborhood, in addition, they carry out art and record markets, exhibitions and also street concerts such as those grouped together by the SMS Festival, in which groups such as The Legendary Tigerman, Pony Bravo, El Columpio Asesino, Guadalupe Plata, Standstill... And all free.
Soho Malaga, included in Google Art Project
** Thermal, or how to do pop culture science **
Exhibitions and activities around Nirvana, Amy Winehouse, Fabio McNamara, Hollywood and Dali are intermingled in the short (but more than intense) exhibition life of La Térmica, which ended its first year with a concert by the highly cult Lydia Lunch, Thurston Moore, Weasel Walter, and James Johnston.
There we have spoken with Jordi Evolé, El Gran Wyoming, Sister Lucía and José Luis Cuerda , and we have even cooked with El Comidista. The thing is to know What's happening to us (That's the name of one of its most popular cycles), and for that we discuss the new cultural press with references such as Jot Down, or music festivals with the organizers of Primavera Sound. Film workshops for children, coaching for actors, literature for bloggers and even disco-cinema nights (with movies and themed dances in the huge garden converted into an improvised party) complete a varied, interesting and close program like few others.
Tempering Malaga culture
Enter this artist's house!
Here you give a kick and three exhibition halls come out (damn it, there is even one in a parking lot), but what we like the most are the houses-art centers . Dynamic, open, fun and cared for down to the smallest detail, as soon as you are put on your feet by an unpublished work performed by professional actors (while you freak out sitting on a mattress, in the dark) as they organize you retrospectives, meetings and intimate concerts with groundbreaking artists. Villapuchero Factory and Casa Sostoa are the reference.
There are also creators who open their premises to those who want to participate in their experience, as well as for small events, such as Cienfuegos and the Las Buhoneras Tropical Workshop. The latter is in Galerias Goya , a shopping mall from the 70s, mutant and full of locals of young people that explores the viability of his projects, both artistic and commercial, around escalators that have not worked for decades. A typically Malaga must see where the most decadent decline and the most scintillating future go hand in hand.
Enter the artist's house
WHERE TO BE SEEN
** The Last Monkey: cool juices **
Okay, let's say you've already spent half the morning wandering the alleys and commenting on how cute Obey's wife is in the graffiti that crowns the CAC. You can only think of one thing: drink something cold and lie on a sofa . The answer so that you can also do it with style, is in El Último Mono, a cozy cafeteria of those that seem to come out of Pinterest.
Shakes, smoothies and juices made at the moment, the best coffee west of the Guadalmedina and North American pastries (homemade!) make people with Macs, writers, inveterate travelers, musicians and other well-understood moderneo fauna flock there like flies to honey. One more fact: they have the friendliest waiters in the universe . Those who greet you by name remember the day of your exam and your brother's birthday. We don't know what they are made of, but surely if you scratch them, rainbows will come out.
The best coffee west of the Guadalmedina
** Julia Bakery, the shop of paradise**
We are not repeating ourselves: although there are also American pastries here, this is rather the small, cozy and absolutely beautiful little house of the lovely auntie you never had . Yes, we are talking about the one that puts the cakes to cool in the window, only here they do it in a showcase that is to cry with love: cupcakes of all shapes and colors, cakes typical of Alice in Wonderland, scones vegan, cookies...
Everything tastes like paradise, and as if that were not enough, its owners are the quintessence of kindness, as well as obstinate lovers of natural ingredients. They themselves explain it in the case of the breads, which they make with all imaginable flavors: "Our bread is a sincere bread, with long rests, calm and made with organic flours. We do not use chemical yeast; we work with natural ferment". Now there is also delicious coffee to drink right there!
The cakes that your 'lovely auntie' would make
** Modernícolas Bar: craft beers and good vibes**
Songs and songs sound hardcore, punk, rap, rock ; those who arrive crowd into the foosball table to play games that they have closed more crushes than Tinder; at the bar, they leave craft beers of all the world; on the wall, cultural references are mixed that mix stephen king with Lars von Trier , a Bukowski with Marvel ; We are in Modernícolas Bar, and not having a good time is impossible.
Be sure to stop by before 2:00 on Thursdays and until 3:00 on Fridays and Saturdays to live the Malaga night like a local and finally understand why everyone wants to party to the Costa del Sol . You will arrive without knowing anyone, it is true, but you will leave knowing the whole bar. And it's worth the shots of Jäger for one euro help, but even more the good vibes of the place.
Modern Bar
Around the world in tapas: Puss in Boot
We are in the south and you expect tapas, and also, cheaply. But in this guide we are not going to settle for the typical bread with chorizo or the usual olives: we're going to take you around the world in two beers, or in two glasses of wine from its short but very careful menu. We talk about The cat with the boot (yes, with only one), a restaurant with international tapas that surprise! it is one of the best kept secrets in town.
It turns out that it is tiny and is located on a very narrow street (Santiago, 6) so it usually goes unnoticed, but whoever gets lost and finds it always finds a way to savor its small delicatessen again. One note: let the owner serve you, it is priceless to hear him say “guacamole” and “porra” with his Montreal accent.
** Drunk-o-rama : tattoos, beards and rock and roll**
If you're looking for tattoos, beards, rockabillies toupees and Jägermeister-esque hangovers, Drunk-o-rama is your place. The (only) refuge of rock, garage and punk in the city brings together the cream of Malaga's youth around a table football and many tubes of beer for one euro . An open secret: the owner and some of his waitresses are part of the gang of Drunk 'n Roll American Fist & His Puñettes , who you can find destroying guitars in the most badass joints in Spain and abroad.
On Saturdays, however, they are the ones who receive groups of friends with the Vermouth-o-rama, an experiment that unites paella + concert and which you can enter with a badge created exclusively for the occasion. The price of this madness, the first part of which is held in the Little Drunk (with very good homemade tapas and the same roll as the bar that gives it its name) almost never exceeds five euros. The concert, by the way, is at Velvet.
Toupees, rockabilly and foosball
**Music and wild party at Velvet Club **
We said that Malaga is a cultural pressure cooker , and the concerts are largely to blame for this upheaval in the city. However, the laws do not usually accompany this revolution, at least in the center; Velvet is practically the only place where you can go to listen to good bands without taking a bus to the industrial estates (whose rooms, on the other hand, are betting more than ever on international groups).
In your programming, that does not spare a weekend , you can find yourself from the newest spanish indie (just out of the garage, hey) even American blues musicians as Daddy Long Legs. Parties of all kinds finish configuring lynchian nights that end at seven in the morning... and that "velvet" only have the name.
* Article published on 06.18.2014, updated and to which we have added the video: 'Málaga in six unexpected plans'