we presented in Madrid Hanging Landscapes. A low-tech intervention made with white fabric, wind, light and the scent of clean laundry, as part of the LuzMadrid 2026 festival. It gave us particular pleasure to do it in the city where we live and where we have been working since the beginning.

Hanging Landscapes brings back an image that belongs to the collective imagination: white sheets stirred by the wind, hanging in the sun, carrying the scent of clean laundry and crossed by clear light. A scene linked to childhood, to the home and to everyday life.

But this image also allows us to remember those who for generations worked under hard and almost always invisible conditions: the washerwomen of the Manzanares River.

Well into the twentieth century, many women from Madrid washed clothes by hand in the river or in public washhouses. They walked from their homes carrying large baskets. They spent hours standing or kneeling, scrubbing in cold water, and then hung the laundry out in the sun. It was physically demanding work, poorly paid and rarely acknowledged, yet essential for sustaining the everyday life of the city.

The piece did not attempt to represent this history directly, but rather to recreate the environment that once belonged to it: white laundry in the wind, movement, light and the sound of fabric moving in the air.

During the days of the installation something especially beautiful happened: children understood the piece immediately. They turned it into their playground, running between the sheets as if it were a small labyrinth. In many cases they even encouraged their parents to join in, inviting them to behave like big children for a while.

More than 15,000 people enjoyed the installation during the three days of the festival, a notable figure considering that visitors were invited to stay and enjoy the piece for as long as they wished.

The installation consisted of a large clothesline holding nearly one hundred backlit white sheets, creating a light and ever-changing landscape that constantly transformed with the wind. The structure was built using a simple Layher scaffolding system, whose industrial appearance contrasted with the lightness of the sheets moving in the air.

No artificial ventilation system was necessary: the piece was placed in an especially windy open area, allowing the sheets to move naturally throughout the intervention.

With very few elements —fabric, wind and light— Hanging Landscapes sought to recover a simple image filled with memory, returning to the urban landscape something that for decades had been part of the everyday life of the river.

And so, a multitude of sheets that could also be white flags in the wind, bandages, diapers or banners… became, for a few days, a comfortable and safe space for play.

We would like to thank the direction of the LuzMadrid festival for their trust and for allowing us to defend something that seems increasingly rare: that a piece can stand without technical spectacle, relying on low technology, simple resources and a clear idea.

Thanks to our producer Burna, to our photographer Melisa Hernández, to Tres Elefantas, to the entire technical team who accompanied us during the installation, and to the security and logistics staff. Together they managed to turn the space into a luminous, comfortable and safe place.

Very special thanks to the visitors who understood and made the piece their own, and to all the friends who joined us and allowed themselves to be photographed tangled among white fabric without fear of looking ridiculous.

Susana, Meli, Delia, Cristina, Martina… as always, a pleasure.