Ray Barbee, a legend in skateboarding, music, and photography, opens the Moments Festival in Malaga

Ray Barbee opens the Moments Festival this Tuesday. The skate, photography, and music legend will offer the workshop 'The Game of Looking' at the Picasso Birthplace Museum, one of the venues of this event created in Málaga, which links avant-garde and popular culture in neighborhoods with top-tier museum spaces. The International Festival of Contemporary Cultures & Arts floods his hometown with about fifty activities that bring together dozens of national and international artists, such as the exhibitions by Idoia Cuesta, Pilar O'Connor, and Marta Pozas, workshops by Luz Moreno, Irene Zottola, and Ricardo Cases, concerts by Orina, Nadolibre, the premiere of the latest performance by flamenco dancer Lucía Álvarez 'La Piñona', and a tribute to the legacy and work of Chiquito de la Calzada.

The workshop at the Picasso Birthplace Museum and the concert at the Centre Pompidou by musician, photographer, and skate legend Ray Barbee, visiting Spain for the first time, will kick off the event. The workshop this Tuesday focuses on developing photographic observation and personal vision, combining theory with street practice. Additionally, the artist will present his new album 'Little Postcards From Home' in an intimate concert at the Centre Pompidou Málaga this Wednesday.

With Barbee's arrival, Moments activates a vast cultural network for a month, connecting major museums such as the Centre Pompidou, the Picasso Birthplace Museum, MUCAC La Coracha, the Málaga Museum, the Russian Museum Collection, and the Carmen Thyssen Museum with self-managed and avant-garde spaces like Drunkorama, La Caverna de Amores, Nika Art Gallery, Buganvillas Film Lab, among others.

From October 21 to November 15, Málaga will host over 20 meetings and series, 14 workshops, more than 20 performances, documentary premieres, and contemporary art actions, in addition to the absolute premiere of 9 exhibitions and many more original and unique experiences. Although photography represents more than 30% of its programming, Moments goes much further to also offer illustration, comics, graphic design, graffiti, painting, crafts, craft-design, music, literature and thought, urban art, skateboarding, surfing, and gastronomy.

The Moments Festival 2025 has unveiled its official image with a poster created by the artist Pilar Pagán O'Connor, based in Spain after training in New York. With patience and craftsmanship, she has shaped a lively square in felt: music, laughter, skates, painting, and everyday encounters. With the graphic collaboration of New York design genius Julian Montague, the work conveys the festival's philosophy: lowering the noise, escaping the rush, and reclaiming the essentials. A reminder that culture is lived in the streets, in community.

Fistrosofía, an ode to Chiquito, the study and thought sessions around the figure of Chiquito de la Calzada return on November 6 to delve into the figure of the singer without neglecting humor. They will take place at the Economic Society of Friends of the Country in Málaga and will feature two meetings. Ramón Soler and Natalia Meléndez Malavé will discuss humor, flamenco, and the Trinidad neighborhood, and Paco Roji will talk about 'Chiquito de la Calzada. The singer (1948-1968)'.

At the legendary Drunk-O-Rama, the III PhotoRama Cycle is celebrated, a night dedicated to photography that features the exclusive presentation of 'Graffiti and Falleras' by Murcian photographer Ricardo Cases, along with portfolio viewings by Rocío Verdejo and Michelo Toro. The second installment of the Oquedades cycle also brings a special edition of the Montes de Málaga, discussing the role of women in verdiales, the mystery of natural wines, and the population and agricultural use of this territory. And reaching their third edition are the Designarium, Wall Stories, and Electroversos cycles.

Designarium will take place at the San Telmo Art School to hear Realmente Bravo talk about his self-managed creative process from the periphery and Luz Moreno, who proposes a reflection on the use of plants. This will be on October 30. That same day, at La Económica, Antonio Xoubanova, Joaquín Vila, and Dreucol participate in the III Wall Stories to discuss mural art in rural environments, urban art, and graffiti. And poetry and sound experimentation will captivate the audience at La Caverna de Amores on November 8 with participation in Electroversos by Marcos Carnero and Patricia Conor, Manué and Carlos Contreras, Elisa Ogalla and Hilandera, Sole Villalba and Belén S. Guzmán. Additionally, Librerías Proteo Prometeo will host the presentation of the work 'The Málaga years 1969-1971. Photographs by Jürgen Schadeberg'.

Workshops, Exhibitions, and Music

In the section of workshops and creative labs, in Málaga, the workshop by Irene Zottola at Las Buganvillas Film Lab stands out, the material explorations by Idoia Cuesta around wicker at the Málaga Museum, the proposal by Pilar O'Connor on intuition and textile narratives at Nika Art Gallery, the gastronomic experiences by Bernardita Cocina and Luz Moreno at the Russian Museum Collection, and the branding workshop by Laura Zorrilla from INDI&COLD 'From Sketch to Click; from Design to Brand Building' at the San Telmo Art School. Ricardo Cases, one of the most interesting photographers in the current scene, teaches the 'Autozine' workshop at the Málaga Museum, and the same space hosts Antonio Xoubanova and his 'Zoom' workshop. Another memorable meeting will be the second edition of Patinantes with a talk on the history of skateboarding in Málaga in the 70s and 80s and the presentation of the book 'Doc Caribbean, living memory of the skateboard' with Doc Caribbean and Hugo Clemente.

Moments 2025 will have almost a dozen exhibition premieres in Málaga, where works by Idoia Cuesta, Pilar O'Connor, Marta Pozas, Marcos Sevilla, Carmela Maracas, Lau Efron, and Pillo, among other artists, will be presented. Nika Art Gallery is one of the most relevant venues, with four exhibitions. On October 25, the paintings by Saúl G. Corona 'The Embrace as Resistance' and the proposal of photographs by Edu Rosa and micropoems by Silvia Guerrero 'Brief as Photos / Postcards from Europe' will be inaugurated. On November 15, the suggestive collages created by Pilar O'Connor in her series 'Concrete Kisses' and the photographic exhibition '24 Faces' by Marta Pozas will arrive. La Económica hosts the new project by Marcos Sevilla 'Grotesque Deluxe' and the exhibition 'Skater and Sunsets' by Malaga skater Pillo. Drunk-O-Rama is the venue for one of the most fun proposals, 'Monsters, Skeletons, Dementia, and Rock'N'Roll' by Carmela Maracas, OCOA offers its space to 'Obliterae' by Lau Efron, and the INDI&COLD store is filled with art with the intervention of Idoia Cuesta, who has designed an installation specifically for the store.

The music in Moments is capable of uniting jazz, punk, and experimental flamenco in that radical sound collage represented by the 11 concerts in the capital of Málaga. In addition to the live presentation by Ray Barbee at Centre Pompidou (October 22), the new works by Nadolibre (October 23, Teatro Cánovas) and Orina (October 30, Teatro Cánovas) will premiere. As a dessert, the closing concert by Quentin Gas & Los Zíngaros (November 15, La Cochera Cabaret). Along with this, one of the most anticipated performances will be by Lucía Álvarez 'La Piñona', one of the most personal and restless flamenco dancers of her generation who brings the absolute premiere of 'Calvario' on October 31 to the Carmen Thyssen Museum. Also worth mentioning is the concert by Mocrobo and Caradusanto on November 7 at MUCAC La Coracha.

The Moments programming also includes other events such as the 19th anniversary of Drunkorama and the presentation of the mural by Carmela Maracas, the premiere of the documentary 'Dancing to the Beats', which includes a meeting with the director and musician Elphomega, the ClubxMom, which focuses on the natural wines of the Montes de Málaga brought by the expert gaze of Samuel Párraga, and the Guateque Social Club XII Moments Festival 2025 at OCOA. In addition to the Moments Málaga presentation party this Wednesday 22 at OCOA, the festival is programming the 'RipTape. Game of Skate' (October 31), which will be a special Halloween edition and participants can come in costume. This year, the Moments Award will be given to Juan Diego Altamirano, creator and promoter of the Velvet Club, a reference for indie and live music in Andalusia.