Sanar Madrid (Healing Madrid)

Knowing how to listen, to give, to walk in another’s shoes. Comforting people through art and drawing. The artist Aitor Saraiba has spent years creating exquisite drawings which he refers to "curative", interpreting the worries, fears, preoccupations and desires of his friends and later presenting the drawings to them as a gift.

In La noche en blanco, the concept is reproduced on a grand scale in the streets of Madrid, with hundreds of draftsmen willing to use their art to "heal" anyone who asks, armed only with a table, two chairs, paper, pens and eagerness to chat. Because it’s high time that a perfect stranger pay attention and listen to us, for once, just because, because he wants to, on the subway, on the elevator or in the middle of the street, and reward us with a souvenir.

Throughout the summer, nearly one hundred artists have gathered at seminars and workshops given at Matadero Madrid to prepare this action, accompanied by Aitor Saraiba and a team of psychologists, with the goal of Healing Madrid, if only for one night. At these sessions, psychologists and artists have instructed the participating draftsmen/women about basic techniques for learning to listen, to pick up on people’s personal troubles and concerns, and to interpret them so they can then create a curative drawing.

Aitor Saraiba is an artist from La Mancha and a graduate of the Cuenca School of Fine Arts. At the tender age of 25, he has already been acclaimed by several art publications as one of our country’s most promising young creators. To date, he has published three books of his drawings: Mis ídolos favoritos and Un pony muerto, published by the MIDE Museum of Cuenca, and El viaje más largo de mi vida, released by the Garco de Puebla Gallery (Mexico).