citylikeyou — Benches of Madrid — Madrid by Lucas Levitan

Madrid / Other / Area / Place

For those who like looking without truly seeing, walking without thinking and see themselves as mere useful cogs - benches are, in fact, useless objects in a big city. However, for many Spanish people, benches are the last paradise for contemplation and hope in places where there is no time for such ‘waste’. Benches are an invitation to stop. They are a place to turn our backs to cars, buses and motorbikes and watch inwards. Benches take us to invisible places inside our heads. They help us watch passers-by as if we are watching a movie. A movie featuring real, everyday characters. And those sitting are actors as well. They become both audience to and player in a huge live theatre. The drama is built frame by frame, minute by minute. This is the way that life passes for those who contemplate the invisible. The bench helps us to look outwards to the city and inwards to ourselves, and to watch the great cinema that is the city. And a city like Madrid is full of amazing stories. foto by Eneida Serrano

Address
Benches of Madrid, https://goo.gl/maps/FvbRGXDCUBM2, Madrid, Spain

Artist Creative Director Illustrator Designer Art Director Visual Artist

Current city: Madrid

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Lucas Levitan is an illustrator today, filmmaker last week, photographer last month and art director last year. A new cycle might start again soon. A few years ago, whilst lunch break walking on Redchurch Street in East London, a brick fell from the 4th floor scaffolding of a building site and missed his head by millimeters. It made him think he should be doing more or what he loves, drawing. It was a turning point. That same moment he went back to the office he used to work for and resigned. Now he’s lost and happier.

More Places in Madrid 27

Madrid / Shop

A bar and bookshop to enjoy a glass of wine while reading a book or to read a book while drinking a glass of wine. They show a careful selection of contemporary literature and artworks downstairs, from where you can spy on the people upstairs because the ceiling is made of glass.

Madrid / Art Centre

Rooftop party with such a view. Should I add anything more?

Madrid / Restaurant

One of the oldest Italian restaurants in Madrid. The food is great and has a cosy atmosphere with lovely interior. Opposite the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.

Madrid / Airport

Barajas Airport is so inspiring, a vibrating place to come and go. Love to walk in its roller stairs and watch the organic columns and the wavy ceilings changing colors from blue to yellow designed by the architects Richard Rogers and Estudio Lamela.

Madrid / Museum

Museo ABC de Dibujo e Ilustración is a building with history. It is located in Amaniel street, one step away from Conde Duque Center, in a building that in 1891 would be the first Mahou beer factory in Madrid. It was designed by José López Salaberry, an architect who was intensely and extensively linked to the new city planning of Madrid in the beginning of the 20th century. Forms part of the city’s historical essence and it is in direct relation with the neighborhood, so that since its beginnings, it is thought as a center which is dynamic, open to society and in charge of disseminating and preserving its art treasures.