Conde Duque Cultural Center

Cultural urban space that houses different spaces and institutions: the North Patio, the Town Archive, the Newspaper Library, the Exhibition Halls, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the four libraries: the Public, the Municipal Historical, the Víctor Espídos Musical and the Digital Memory of Madrid. Also through the public company Madrid Destino, the following are managed: the Theatre, the Assembly Hall, the Auditorium, the Rehearsal Rooms, the Vault Room, the Tower, the Multipurpose Room, the South Patio and the Central Patio. In 2000, Juan Carrete, director of the Conde Duque Cultural Center, opened a line of innovative exploration, the Medialab digital art workshop that soon became a resource, production and debate center for artists, scientists, thinkers, students. and all types of researchers.

In March 2002, the exhibition Cibervisión 02: Fluid Dynamics was held and the project was established under the name MediaLabMadrid and directed by Karin Ohlenschläger and Luis Rico, a space for the exhibition and dissemination of theoretical and artistic discourses and a place to produce knowledge, not only artistic, but also scientific and technological. Through the holding of several exhibitions of international scope (Banquete_Metabolismo y Comunicación, 2003; Banquete 05_Comunicación en Evolución, 2005; or Digital Transit, 2006) and the implementation of research projects, MediaLabMadrid explored concepts of biology in combination with others coming from the social sciences, computing or complexity sciences to develop a transdisciplinary dynamic of knowledge production and transfer.

In 2006, the first edition of Interactive? was organized from the educational and cultural mediation program, which would be the basis for the new stage that places greater emphasis on citizen participation in the research and production processes of cultural projects. In 2007, the program moved to the Plaza de las Letras, on the ground floor of the old Belga Sawmill, adopting the name Medialab-Prado. Its current location is in Matadero.