“Neomudejar” takes a close look at the architectural neomudejar heritage in Madrid, built over a century ago. Our video documents our working process, from our initial scouts around Madrid looking for these specific buildings and learning to recognize them, to our embroidered photographs.

The decision to work embroidering the photographs that we had taken on our walks comes from the realization that the patterns made with the bricks are the same patterns that appear in certain Spanish embroideries. We were used to seeing these buildings in our everyday however embroidering on them was a way to highlight those designs and add beauty to them. We imagined we were making souvenirs similar to the embroidered postcards that were in fashion decades ago that showed people in their traditional costume.

During our working sessions we have had many discussions about the architecture we were looking at and how it was the product of a specific time when countries in Europe were all searching for their national style in their past. We have understood how, in the case of Spain, it was a great opportunity to have the ubiquitous industrial brick to work with because there was still so much mudejar brick architecture standing from the Middle Ages to get inspired by.

We have also had conversations about the fate of the mudejar and neomudejar heritage, since both of them have gone through periods of neglect and destruction. We were very lucky to be able to interview two persons with very different stories. One was Blanca’s grandmother, who grew up in Zaragoza in the 1950’s. She recalls how the impressive mudejar buildings were then in absolute neglect, she used to go with her father to one of these buildings because they used it as a pen for chickens. Another was Laura, who works in the Madrid town council, and has been in charge of creating a new law for the protection of the “neomudejar” buildings from working class neighborhoods in Madrid.

We hope to have contributed to this heritage’s appreciation in the future!