September brings the return of the exhibition season and the buzzing sensation of a cultural metropolis sweeps through the streets of Madrid. Warm summer days are still on the horizon as I make my way across the city to experience the 15th edition of the Apertura Madrid Gallery Weekend. Run by Arte Madrid (Association of Modern and Contemporary Art Galleries in Madrid), more than 50 galleries simultaneously unveil exhibitions by Spanish and foreign artists at different points in their careers in several areas of the capital. This year’s edition was held between September 12 and 15, featuring some first-time galleries, such as Espacio Mínimo and Memoria.

The Arte Madrid app was a great asset in helping chance happen, providing some surprises along the way by keeping tabs on the route in real time on the city map. There was so much to see, most of the galleries had solo shows, others presented a dialogue, such as Memória, with Lo Arbóreo by Gustavo Pérez and Lin Calle, or group exhibitions like Galeria Silvestre, with Así que pasen diez años, involving Portuguese artists Catarina Botelho, Martinho Costa and Sara Bichão, and Galeria La Caja Negra with the group show Mapa y paisaje. 25 visiones sobre la superficie de la tierra, also showcasing works by Portuguese artists Pedro Cabrita Reis and Daniel Blaufuks.

New technologies and power structures are the subject of Sabrina Amrani in Carabanchel, with Generated Dreams by the Istanbul-based artist duo from Brussels :mentalKLINIK, and From Fictional Videogames to Hypothetical Museums of the Future at The Ryder, British artist Suzanne Treister’s first solo show in Spain.

In an age when cravings are set by algorithms, a twisted notion of reality, plasticised and spurred on by virtual hallucination, is shown in Generated Dreams by :mentalKLINIK. Drapes divide the gallery area, hinting at a sort of screen, a filter mirroring modified images and partially revealing the other side. Lured into this vast room, there is a voyeuristic sensation when watching Billie and Valentine. The phantom creatures share the floor with three industrial structures, while AI-generated images and a series of ‘paintings that are not paintings’ on the walls reveal the power of appearances, posing questions such as authorship and the impact of digital technologies on artistic production today.

Suzanne Treister (London, 1958), a 90s digital art pioneer, presents at The Ryder a range of some of her most important achievements. In From Fictional Videogames to Hypothetical Museums of the Future, several drawings and paintings portray historical and political narratives in tarot cards and alchemical symbologies. The institutional critique is carried out in an esoteric manner, where multicoloured diagrams and mystical depictions build imaginative realms out of the dominant devices of contemporary culture. The multimedia installation Time Travelling with Rosalind Brodsky enhances both the nostalgic and futuristic nature of the exhibition and invites the audience on a journey back in time and into Rosalind Brodsky’s universe, her alter-ego.

The irony pervading both proposals as a tool for tackling political issues can also be seen at Espaço Mínimo in Other unfinished stories by Liliana Porter (Buenos Aires, 1941). Miniature objects form scenes and situations at once, some tragic and others subtle or even banal. At first glance, associations that may not be related to each other emerge amid broken china, about to be swept away by La barrendera, the installation’s title. Alongside the interplay of scales, a kitsch vibe is enhanced by the antique collection, the swirling dust confirms a non-linear timeline and the overflow of information, between representations and determining gears, is similar to the way our minds work.

Patricia Gómez and María Jesús González (Valencia, 1978) presented Espejo del Mundo at 1Mira. The eroded walls, pulled from the interior of a former psychiatric hospital in Bétera, reveal signs of neglect. Removed from their source, fragments laden with hidden and misunderstood memories are uncovered and promoted to objects of reflection and contemplation. The installation that bears the exhibition title challenges the audience to confront their own image reflected in the broken and weathered mirrors of the Bétera psychiatric hospital, blending in with the reflections of photos of its ruins. In this narrow corridor, the viewer is faced with the faint threshold of human consciousness.

The different perspectives on the sculptural language and the serial production of a material took shape at the Alzueta Gallery, with One Bamboo Show by Laurent Martin ‘Lo’, at Albarrán Bourdais with Emergencia by Héctor Zamora, and at FORMATOCOMODO with Folded forms by Karlos Martínez.

Laurent Martin ‘Lo’ (France, 1955) studies the physical and spiritual elements of matter in One Bamboo Show. Kinetic sculptures call to mind cosmic events and celestial bodies in a flow of orbits. Using the tension between the strands, the artist builds relationships between weight and lightness, resistance and flexibility reminiscent of interdependent and ecological systems. The exhibition’s ethereal nature stands in stark contrast to the human traces to be found a few metres further on in Albarrán Bourdais.

In Emergencia, Héctor Zamora (Mexico City, 1974) takes over the gallery with terracotta pots and blocks, a material often used in construction. Whilst the sculpture L’oeuf de vie (2014), formed by a set of hexagonal blocks, resembles a harmonious poise, piles of pots are scattered throughout the gallery, left over from the action captured in the video also featured in the exhibition, where people spread out inside and outside the building toss these pots from hand to hand to carry them from one place to another, displaying a sense of urgency that involves methodology and unpredictability.

FORMATOCOMODO is showing Folded forms by Karlos Martínez (Bilbao, 1982). In this instance, the exhibition is not centred on natural materials, but industrial ones. The pieces refer to domestic furniture, unfolding in repeated shapes, familiar silhouettes and ambiguous sensations of that which is both habitual and odd. By reassembling the elements, new combinations shape a sense of mutability and dynamism and, between assembly lines, question the role and meaning of the objects.

Umbigo travelled to Madrid at the invitation of Apertura Madrid Gallery Weekend.