International pop-culture junkies are probably well-aware of the post-Franco cultural movement that swept through Madrid in the late ‘70s and ‘80s. La Movida represented an unusual period of cultural, social, and artistic freedom and experimentation in the city--a time that, for many of its current inhabitants, has long been forgotten.

Not so for promoters, DJs, and general creative collaborators–- Luli Perez, Patricia Matres and Ella Carrero. These three young, culturally-aware women came together to form The Junkettes-– a collective specifically designed to shake up the social shackles of Madrid. With a manifesto that begs for change and calls for “artists, obsessive minds, freaks, and up-all-night believers,” they scoured the globe in search of like-minded fellows and introduced Madrid to such acts as The Horrors and These New Puritans.

Having now relocated to London, their passionate the search lives on while DJing and putting on their own parties, whereby the beautiful trio tend to leave a gaggling posse of broken-hearted artists and musicians in their wake. psychoPEDIA met up with the girls in their Whitechapel abode to discuss the trouble with their city’s creative culture, and their favorite shops, eateries, museums, and hangouts:

Where did you put on your events in Madrid?
LP: We put them on as part of two nights, called “Astoria” and “Nasti Club” that both went on at Nasti. Its pink inside, but it’s a real rough venue– low ceilings, hot, sweating walls. It smells. It’s smoky, and you have to go outside to breathe. The good thing about the clubs, though, is they haven’t all been made over. It’s a very raucous environment.

Where else would you go to see bands?
LP: There isn’t such a culture for watching live music. You go out to dance and get drunk.

Did you succeed in changing this attitude with your events?
LP: I think we changed it a bit, in that people go out more to see small, independent bands, not just big name shows. MySpace helped too, but we definitely contributed.

How far has Madrid gone towards keeping the spirit of La Movida alive?
LP: The collective vision is that things are a bit weird at the moment. It’s not a good thing to be an artist in Madrid. You will be starving, not get a job. It’s not accepted by society, so it’s hard to get people together to do stuff on a creative level.

You want to revive the creative spirit of the city?
LP: Exactly. We wanted to rise up Madrid and make it fun as the capital of a country. Why can’t it be like Berlin or London, where there are a lot of young people doing really cool things? Just because the city has a real retro vision of how arts and music should be. They take their hats off to the foreign artists, but not for their own.

There must be something that inspires you in the city.
LP: There is a place called the Art Triangle that has the Prado Museum in its neo-classical building: the Reina Sofia for contemporary arts, and the Thyssen that is a private collection of art from the 10th century to now. The Triangle has you covered for an “art day,” and there are a lot of galleries around it too, if you still have strength.
PM: They just opened the Fundacion Caja in front of the Prado that has lots of free exhibitions and an amazing “standing garden.”
LP: La Casa Encendida is also a great place for young artists who submit their work and hold their own exhibitions. There are lots of great screenings on the terrace.

On the finest day in the city when the sun is out, what do you do?
PM: There’s a good culture of sitting outside, having tapas, drinking beer, and talk, talk, and talk, and drink, drink, and drink, everywhere in the city. It’s tradition.
LP: Pizzeria Maravillas, is good–- the best pizza in Malasana. Malasana is also great for going to coffee shops. You get there, you have an ice cream, you have a walk, go to the shops.

Your favorite shops there?
PM: Restaurarte is the best. It’s a huge junk shop where they sell everything. Old women go there and sell the owner things. But he told me most of the things he finds in trash cans– things people throw out. He finds really cool silverware, postcards, and pictures. What he normally does, though, is when people die, he’ll go and collect the things from the houses.

Is bringing acts over to perform at your nights an effort to jolt people into thinking they can do it too–- bringing back the DIY attitude in Madrid?
LP: We wanted to encourage those from the inside of our city. There are a couple of Madrid bands that we started working with and are now doing very well. It’s not something that happens in Madrid often. Music labels there are horrible and hard to break into.
PM: The thing about Madrid is that what everyone else gets, we get 5 years later. They are in a weird time capsule that gets inspired by London, especially. A lot of the Madrid bands get into what’s going on in New York and London, but it takes them too long to get their act together, and then its over. There are a lot of “The Strokes” and “Arctic Monkeys” bands around. It’s the same with fashion, as well–- 5 years retarded.
LP: People are tentative about wanting to be in the future, the avant-garde.

La Movida had amazing bands and amazing artists. What happened to them?
PM: They eventually died out. But some do come back and have gigs that sell out, so there is still a love for that culture. Madrid is still a very conservative city living in the shadow of Franco. People are still scared to come out of their TV screen or their gossip magazine.

You don’t want to give up on your manifesto though, surely?
PM: We do what we do. It’s good we are opening doors for recognition of people, and we're really proud of that. We gave the initiative start to this movement, and people will feed off us. That’s human nature. As long as they are advancing, we've created that start-off–- that kick to get out of the commercial world.

~Kevin Soar

Go There:
Pizzeria Maravillas, Plaza del 2 de Mayo 9, Madrid.
Restaurarte, San Vincente Ferrer 27, Madrid. +34 915 327 209


First & fourth photos, courtesy of The Junkettes
Second photo via Kompas
Third photo, courtesy of Nasti Club
Fifth photo by pe-ri-pa-tet-ik via Flickr
Sixth photo by thebluemoment via Flickr
Seventh photo by thebluemoment via Flickr
Eighth photo via Marvelous Architectures
Ninth photo via Inthesity
Tenth photo by pacamanca via Flickr
Eleventh photo by menemadrid via Flickr