Madrid’s Top 10 : People and Places of La Movida – Top 10 Moments of La Movida

1. Plaza Dos de Mayo

   On
   2 May 1976 a young couple climbed on to the statue of Daoíz and Velarde
   and performed a striptease in front of a boisterous crowd of youngsters
   celebrating on the square. This was one of the first manifestations of
   the movida (scene), a period of hedonism, enthusiasm and creative energy.

2. Pedro Almodóvar

   The controversial Academy Award-winning film director shot his first movie, Pepi, Luci, Bom
   in 1980. Iconoclastic and subversive, his bizarre characters –
   drugpushing nuns, pill-popping housewives and outrageous transvestites –
   shocked a society that was only just emerging from the Franco era and
   captured the spirit of the movida on celluloid.

3. Ceesepe

   This self-taught artist (real name Carlos Sánchez Pérez) was a leading figure of the movida.
   He produced posters for several of Almodóvar’s films, as well as book
   illustrations, cartoons and record covers. His exhibition, the “Last
   Supper”, in the Moriarty Gallery in 1983, brought him to the attention
   of a wider public.

4. Ouka Lele

   Madrid-born
   photographer Ouka Lele (real name Bárbara Allende) got her big break in
   1984 when her work was shown at the Moriarty Gallery. She is now one of
   Spain’s most famous photographers.

5. Moriarty Gallery

   Lola
   Moriarty’s art gallery in Calle Almirante (still going strong) was
   enormously influential in promoting the careers of artists and
   photographers of the movida. Her husband, Borja Casani, was editor of Luna,
   a monthly magazine which published stories by Almodóvar and others. In
   1984 Casani hired the entire Hotel Palace for a party attended by
   several thousand movidistas.

6. Mecano

   One of Spain’s best known pop bands of the movida
   was formed by brothers José and Nacho Cano, and singer Ana Torroja.
   They hit the big time after persuading a Madrid radio station to play
   their first single.

7. Rock Ola

   This La Latina nightclub was one of the most important venues of the movida period. Regularly closed down by the police because of drug dealing, it was here that all the influential movida bands played.

8. Enrique Tierno Galván

   This
   former Professor of Marxist philosophy was elected Mayor of Madrid in
   1979 and it was his tolerant and relaxed approach that made the movida possible. One million people attended his funeral in 1986.

9. Fashion Designers

   The movida
   spawned a new generation of fashion designers who were all to become
   international names. Jesús del Pozo, Adolfo Domínguez and Ágatha Ruíz de
   la Prada all flouted the fashion conventions of the day.

   
   

   
   
   

10. Luís Antonio de Villena

    Villena’s novel Madrid ha muerto (Madrid has died), published in 1999, points out the scene’s darker side, as youthful hopes and ideals give way to disillusionment.

Top 10 Moments of La Movida