PLANTA BAJA. An independent space for creation at street level in which live arts and relationships are at the center.

Located in Carabanchel, Planta Baja is an independent space opened in 2022 from the desire to host and facilitate the meeting between creators and locals. A "being together" that takes on a radical meaning after the multi-crises that are going through at global, collective and personal levels.

Managed by hablarenarte, this space at street level, which was formerly a glass workshop, is today an open-plan room, permeable to multiple uses, and with a strong presence of live plants. Planta Baja aims to create a space in which to share, think and implement other ways of doing linked to artistic practices. Planta Baja is a space for dialogue, listening and, above all, situated collective action, with an emphasis on live and relational arts as the engine of these processes.

Formerly, the ground floors were intended for the use of porters, warehouses, coal bunkers or housing for building workers. Somewhat invisible and undervalued, they are essential spaces, which are linked to energy, machinery, but also to reproduction, to what in the professional artistic environment we call “care”.

At street level, the ground floors are liminal spaces between the domestic and the public, where life sneaks in and circulates. Often hostile to plant life, this ground floor has been reformed to allow light, sky and green to coexist. This Planta Alta is a grounding, like the succulent plants that cover the ground, like grass or ivy. It is rooting, letting oneself soak and soaking the environment, it is an artistic practice traversed by cultural mediation. A small ecosystem that invokes others.

Planta Baja arises from the experience and trajectory of the hablarenarte team, specifically from the conceptualization and management of the Planta Alta residency space, whose imprint and importance became evident during the pandemic.