"El bosc del Prado" by Maider López: new ways of looking and relating

Maider López's Prado Forest relates the Royal Botanical Garden to trees that are represented in paintings on display in its neighboring Prado Museum. This rereading of the museum's collection relates past, present and future, proposing new ways of looking at and relating to our environment. This action and installation is curated by Iñaki Martínez Antelo and Alicia Ventura and is produced by MadBlue Summit and DKV for the Royal Botanical Garden.

Maider López's project for the Royal Botanical Garden is part of the Prado Museum's collection and creates the Prado Forest by "removing" the trees from the paintings outside the museum. After conducting a study of the trees that are represented in the paintings in the museum bordering the garden, make a selection of 41 trees of 8 species that are shown in 4 in different locations in the garden.

After the exhibition period, the trees will be transplanted on public land in Alalpardo, forming what will be "El bosque del Prado" in a few years. Within 20 years, these little trees will have grown, then they will have the look they show in the pictures.

The project goes beyond its time limits creating a natural space for the future, El bosque del Prado, which will have meant the translation of the species represented in the works of the museum to the outer space of the city, converted back into nature . A game of reality and representation that relates past, present and future, through a journey through the history of art and the representation of nature.

Of the 1243 paintings in the collection on display at the El Prado Museum in January 2022, 372 represent trees. 30% of the paintings on display have trees.