The Bank of Spain has opened its textile archives to the public through a contemporary art exhibition titled El plano flexible, running until March 28, 2027. Curated by Yolanda Romero, the exhibition establishes a direct dialogue between the institution’s historical collection of textiles, including 17th- and 18th-century European tapestries, and modern works by artists, examining how textiles shape space, reinforce power hierarchies, and reflect socioeconomic labor structures.
The Historical and Architectural Roots of Bank of Spain Textiles
The exhibition title derives from designer and weaver Anni Albers’s 1957 essay, The Pliable Plane: Textiles in Architecture. Albers argued that woven materials are not merely rigid surfaces, but dynamic elements capable of organizing spatial environments, filtering light, absorbing sound, and generating distinct physical experiences. Romero notes that fabrics modify physical spaces without requiring structural alterations.
The Bank of Spain’s relationship with textiles dates back to 1783, when Carlos III authorized tapestries and benches from the Royal House for the General Boardroom. Centuries later, in the 1930s, six Flemish tapestries crafted by Gerard Peemans (1660-1710) were installed in the General Shareholders’ Boardroom primarily to resolve an acoustic problem. Alongside an 1861 carpet and a 1934 piece, these works illustrate the institution’s relationship with the Royal Tapestry Factory and the textile industry.
The Needle as a Tool for Feminist Critique and Repair
Organized into four distinct thematic areas, the exhibition opens with La aguja como lápiz (The Needle as a Pencil), which examines sewing as a form of drawing, writing, and feminist critique. Valencian painter Isabel Oliver uses paint to replicate cross-stitch, questioning the domestic confinement historically reserved for women during the Franco regime. Visual artist Elo Vega embroiders historic women’s rights manifestos, while plastic artist Victoria Gil recovers the memory of female textile workers. Elena del Rivero frames sewing as a physical gesture tied to healing, transforming the needle into an instrument for analyzing the wound, labor, and inequality.
The second section, Minorías derrotadas (Defeated Minorities), explores the friction between hand-crafted traditions and industrialization. Teresa Lanceta incorporates weaving practices from Morocco’s Middle Atlas communities, while artist Aurèlia Muñoz utilizes traditional techniques to construct sculptural forms. Franco-Moroccan photographer Yto Barrada contrasts the deliberate pace of artisan dyeing with industrial speed, and Antonio Pichillá highlights Mayan generational knowledge preserved within his family.
Institutional Power, Labor, and Economic Value
The third zone, Existencias de interior: vestir la arquitectura, revisits how carpets and tapestries functioned within official buildings to dictate traffic flows, demarcate authority, and project an image of power. The final section, Tiempos, relatos y economías del valor, bridges textiles and modern economic exchange. Dora García’s six tapestries, titled Manos que dan, manos que reciben (Hands that Give, Hands that Receive), were originally commissioned to improve the acoustics of the Tellers’ Hall while prompting reflection on invisible care and labor networks that sustain financial markets.
Andreas Maria Fohr uses embroidered promissory notes to address debt, time, and work, while Patricia Esquivias visualizes sheep traversing the Bank’s Operations Hall to connect historical transhumance and the Mesta with wool, historically termed the “white gold of the Spanish economy.” The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive catalog compiled by the institution’s Heritage and Collections Division following nearly three years of research.
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