Now firmly established as one of Madrid’s must-attend cultural events, the festival offers a contemporary and experimental perspective on electronic and sound art, audiovisual and performing arts, digital art and extended realities (XR).
The programme at Centro de Danza Matadero features audiovisual performances, live concerts and stage productions. The British company Neon Dance will present the Spanish premiere of Last and First Men, a stage adaptation of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s acclaimed film, featuring the original score composed by Jóhansson and Yair Elazar Glotman. This year’s highlights also include legendary Spanish experimental musician Suso Saiz, New York-based pianist and producer Kelly Moran and the collaboration between audiovisual duo Schnitt and Japanese calligrapher Aoi Yamaguchi.
The Vortex section continues its focus on extended realities with internationally acclaimed projects including A Long Goodbye, by Kate Voet and Víctor Maes, the premiere of a new work by Spanish artist Carles Castaño and Chronica V1 by Bárbara Mydlak and Yann Deval.
This year’s audiovisual installations programme is led by the interactive installation created by 1024 architecture and Vitalic, alongside a new work by Riccardo Giovinetto. Younger audiences will be able to experience Playground, an interactive play system developed by Czech collective Initiinstalled in Nave Una at Matadero Madrid.
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE
Matadero Madrid, the centre for contemporary creation run by the Department of Culture, Tourism and Sports of Ayuntamiento de Madrid, presents the programme for the 8th edition of L.E.V. Matadero, taking place from September 17 to 20. Renowned for its commitment to artistic innovation and experimentation, the festival’s 2026 edition once again offers a programme designed as a space for discovery, featuring world premieres, Spanish premieres and works by leading national and international artists that are rarely seen in other contexts in Spain. Together, these projects offer a journey through some of the most compelling and stimulating practices emerging at the intersection of music, visual arts and digital technologies.
This year’s curatorial programme brings together a constellation of works exploring memory, perception, and the many ways we inhabit a world increasingly shaped by technology. Through live concerts, audiovisual performances, immersive installations, stage works and XR experiences, artists from Spain and abroad offer new imaginaries where the physical and the virtual, the human and the artificial, the intimate and the collective converge to create a space for debate, emotion and shared experience. Rather than treating technology as an end in itself, these works embrace technological innovation as a sensitive artistic language through which to image new forms of connection, listening and transformation.
LIVE SHOWS AND AUDIOVISUAL PERFORMANCES AT CENTRO DE DANZA MATADERO
NEONDANCE | DREW MCDOWALL & PEDRO MAIA | KYRIA LIBIA | SCHNITT & AOI YAMAGUCHI |
MILIAN MORI | KELLY MORAN | NAO
The festival kicks off on Thursday, September 17th with one of the most anticipated productions of this year’s edition: the Spanisn premiere of Last and First Men, the stage adaptation of Jóhan Jóhannsson’s acclaimed experimental film, itself based on Olaf Satpledon’s visionary 1930 science fiction novel of the same name. The british company Neon Dance brings the film’s haunting universe to the stage in a performance that combines 16mm film, contemporary dance, Tilda Swinton’s iconic narration, and the evocative score by Jóhannsson y Yair Elazar Glotman creating a powerful meditation on the future of humanity.
The programme for Friday, September 18th will bring together three leading figures in contemporary sound art. reunirá a tres referentes de la creación sonora contemporánea. A key figure in Spanish experimental music scene, Suso Saiz will perform a free open-air concert at Plaza Matadero, weaving together guitars, rich textures and immersive soundscapes. Scottish composer Drew McDowall, a pioneering force in experimental music and former member of Coil and Psychic TV, joins Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Maia for an audiovisual performance where electroacoustic composition and experimental cinema unfold in real time. The day concludes with the premiere of El arrobamiento, the latest work by Kyria Libia developed at Matadero Madrid’s Centro de Residencias Artísticas. Blending sacred music with electronic composition, the piece explores the intersection of mysticism and contemporary sound.
On Saturday, September 19th audiences will experience the Spanish premiere of Calligraton, a live show performance by audiovisual duo Schnitt in collaboration with Japanese calligrapher Aoi Yamaguchi in which the art of ‘shodō’ comes to life on stage in dialogue with experimental electronics. Later that day, Swiss composer and digital artist Milian Mori will present an intense audiovisual live set combining powerful electronic music and striking stroboscopic visuals, pushing club music into unexpected territory.
The festival’s final day, Sunday, September 20 sees the return of New York-based pianist and producer Kelly Moran, who will present her latest album Don’t Trust Mirrors, an introspective journey shaped by prepared piano, synthesisers and electronic experimentation. Bringing the live programme to a close, Japanese artist NAO premieres THE CLUSTERs, in Spain, a performance that fuses dance, robotics, sound and real-time visuals into a compelling dialogue between the human body and the machine.
LEV MATADERO EXPLORES THE REALMS OF MEMORY WITH ITS ‘VORTEX’ SECTION
This year, L.E.V. Matadero once again presents a selection of interactive virtual, mixed and augmented reality experiences that invite audiences to rediscover both the world around them and themselves. Installed across Central de Diseño and Terrario, the Vortex programme brings together works that transform intimate, personal narratives into shared immersive experiences.
Among the highlights is [“Á”1653 “gora” 23035], the latest work by Spanish digital artist Carles Castaño, produced by Servicios Inmersivos and premiering at L.E.V. Matadero. This immersive mixed reality installation invites visitors to confront the memory of our own planet from an unsettling perspective: what if we were the aliens?
Belgian creators Kate Voet and Victor Maes present A Long Goodbye, winner of the Venice Immersive Achievement Prize at the 2025 Venice Biennale. This moving virtual reality experience explores the impact of dementia through the intimacy of a lifelong love story, transforming memory into a space that can be inhabited while reflecting on the bonds that endure beyond illness.
Audiences will also experience Chronica V1, by Barbara Mydlak and Yann Deval, an interactive work that combines traditional papermaking techniques with digital technologies. Participants are invited to contribute to a living archive that evolves with every interaction, creating a sensory journey through memory, illness and healing.
AUDIOVISUAL INSTALLATIONS
The festival also presents Puppet, an immersive audiovisual installation by 1024 architecture in collaboration with French producer Vitalic, on view at El Taller. Premiering in Spain, the work offers a playful approach to musical composition through the manipulation of a puppet-like figure that generates rhythms and melodies with every movement, blurring the boundaries between instrument, game and performance.
Meanwhile, Plató Cineteca will host the Spanish premiere of H U M I, the latest work by the Italian audiovisual artist, composer and physicist Riccardo Giovinetto. Combining satellite imagery and evolving soundscapes, the installation explores the idea of borders as fluid, ever-changing territories, inviting audiences to rethink the geography of our contemporary world.
Younger visitors will also find their own space at Nave 1 with Playground, an interactive installation by Czech studio Initi that transforms any wall into a collaborative environment for play, movement and creative exploration.
The Festival of Visual Electronics and Extended Realities, arranged by Matadero Madrid and curated by L.E.V. (Laboratorio de Electrónica Visual y Realidades Extendidas). With the collaboration of Centro de Danza Matadero, Cineteca Madrid y Centro de residencias artísticas, featuring Central de Diseño.
L.E.V. Matadero 2026
September 17 – 20 | Matadero Madrid
www.levfestival.com
#LEVMatadero @levfestival @mataderomadrid
Arranged by Matadero Madrid
Curated by L.E.V. Laboratorio de Electrónica Visual
Partners: Centro de Danza Matadero, Cineteca Madrid, Centro de residencias artísticas
Featuring: Central de Diseño
Supported by: RiT2 (Realities in Transition 2).
Associated media: Radio 3, OCI Magazine, Clot Magazine, Metal Magazine
Visual identity: Iván Puñal
Sound design: Milian Mori
LINE UP LEV MATADERO 2026_
Sept 17 – 20
LIVE SHOWS & AV PERFORMANCES
NEON DANCE (JÓHANN JÓHANNSSON & YAIR ELAZAR GLOTMAN, narrado por TILDA SWINTON). Last and First Men _UK (Spanish Premiere)
SCHNITT + AOI YAMAGUCHI. Calligraton _IT/JP (Spanish Premiere)
DREW MCDOWALL & PEDRO MAIA A/V _US/DE
SUSO SAIZ _ES
KELLY MORAN _US
MILIAN MORI _CH [Raster Media]
KYRIA LIBIA. El Arrobamiento _ES World Premiere
NAO. THE CLUSTERs _JP [Les laboratoires deletere] (Spanish Premiere)
VORTEX. VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCES
CHRONICA V1. Barbara Mydlak & Yann Deval. _FR
[“Á”1653 “gora” 23035]. Carles Castaño _ES World Premiere
A LONG GOODBYE. Kate Voes & Victor Maes. _BE/LU/NL
AUDIOVISUAL INSTALLATIONS
PUPPET. 1024 Architecture X Vitalic _FR (Spanish Premiere)
PLAYGROUND. Initi _CZ
H U M I. Riccardo Giovinetto _IT (Spanish Premiere)
