Textile exhibition links architecture, labor and value creation
Banco de España has opened “The Pliable Plane,” a textile art exhibition featuring around 50 works from the seventeenth century to the present. Curated by Yolanda Romero, the show runs at the central bank’s Madrid headquarters from September 28, 2026, to March 28, 2027.
From Flemish tapestries to feminist needlework
Inspired by Anni Albers’s 1957 essay “The Pliable Plane,” the exhibition brings together tapestries, carpets, paintings, photographs, videos, documents, and coins across four thematic sections.
The first section, “The needle as pencil,” highlights textile practices as tools for political reflection and labor critique through works by Isabel Oliver, Elo Vega, Victoria Gil, and Carole Frances Lung.
The second explores artisanal knowledge and cultural resistance with pieces by Teresa Lanceta, Aurèlia Muñoz, and Yto Barrada.
The central core displays historical Flemish tapestries by Geraert Peemans and nineteenth-century carpets from the Real Fábrica de Tapices originally made for the Paseo del Prado.
Promissory notes and public catalogues
The final section examines value creation, featuring site-specific tapestries by Dora García for the Salón de Cobradores and Andreas Maria Fohr’s embroidered works evoking promissory notes.
Alongside the exhibition, Banco de España released a catalogue raisonné documenting nearly one hundred textile pieces preserved over two centuries.
Edited by Complutense University professor Antonio Sama and Yolanda Romero, the volume is available as a free download alongside the bank’s existing art catalogues.
Public heritage beyond corporate decoration
Opening central bank art archives to public scrutiny offers a welcome standard of cultural transparency.
Framing textile craft around labor and value creation elevates the exhibition well beyond corporate decoration.
Making the full catalogue freely accessible reinforces genuine public accountability.