Gancedo at Madrid Design Festival 2025

A key event in the capital’s annual calendar, Madrid Design Festival’s aim is to celebrate and encourage design in all its many forms. This festival has established itself as an international  platform for creative expression, for the presentation of innovations in graphic, industrial, interior and fashion design, and of course textile design. In its most recent edition, Gancedo is one of the leading brands, with two exhibitions that not only emphasise tradition and textile art, but also their ability to blend the time-honoured with the contemporary.

"The value of textile art"

The first of the exhibitions at Gancedo’s headquarters in Madrid celebrates textile art as a means of transforming natural raw materials into unique pieces of art. The display brings together four textile artists from Villablino, the Gancedo family’s birthplace: Anay Marín, Elu Fraile, María Jesús Manzanares and Silvia Gándara. These creative minds delve into the value of the textile handcrafting process and its traditions, such as embroidery, stitched tapestries and the use of natural fibres. Each artist offers a unique vision of the handcrafting process, taking inspiration from their natural surroundings and the traditions of their native land.

Anay Marín, born in Logroño, is an artist whose journey began at Art School, where she first studied graphic design. After living in Oviedo and working in advertising agencies, journalism and teaching, Anay moved to Villablino. Contact with the countryside of the area led her to immerse herself in the world of natural materials such as wool, cotton and cane, as well as experimenting with biomaterials. Her work reflects a profound respect for handcrafting processes, combining traditional techniques such as basket-weaving, looms and embroidery with a contemporary focus that transforms them into up-to-date designs.

As for Elu Fraile, her career has altered course, moving from traditional tapestry to handcrafted felt, with work that stands out on account of its delicacy and connection with nature, especially through using wool, a material she deems renewable and recyclable.

With a degree in Fine Art, Silvia Gándara is a multidisciplinary artist, designer and artistic coach. She defines herself as “a creator of worlds, maker of dreams”, exploring art from several perspectives: painting, transforming spaces, creating brands and experimenting with materials. Her focus is profoundly linked to art as a therapeutic tool, using the creative process for personal self-knowledge.

Finally, María Jesús Manzanares has a degree in Fine Art with specialism in painting from the University of Salamanca and a doctorate from the Institute of Aesthetics and Art Theory at the Autónoma University of Madrid. Her work derives from an impassioned yet sensitive register of human emotions, almost as if she were exploring ancient trunks laden with forgotten feelings. Her compositions are peopled by distorted women, represented by ethereal figures that fill space without touching it, forms that communicate with each other, to produce a nameless, timeless woman. Apart from painting and drawing, Manzanares uses a needle and thread to give shape to those emotions, embroidering them and transforming them into patches, as if they were wounds trying to heal. Her art reclaims what used to be women’s work, restores forgotten outfits and connects with emotions that suffuse obsolete objects, repurposed through her art.

This exhibition not only pays homage to textile art but also to the cultural legacy of the Laciana Valley. In fact, Villablino was the headquarters of the Sierra Pambley School, an educational institution which has promoted cultural and education development in the region since 1887.

“Ancestral roots”

Gancedo and the Mexican artist Nyra Troyce have come together to create a new collection of respectful fabrics. Named Milpa, it is a living homage to the cultural roots of Mesoamerica, where each thread tells a tale of connection, respect and harmony.

Nora Troyce’s work is a tribute to the roots of her native land, with a profound reflection on how tradition can flourish alongside innovation. In her new ”Milpa” collection, the designer establishes a dialogue between high technology and the traditional textile techniques of Mesoamerica.

The colours chosen for Milpa evoke the warm, natural tones of the Mexican soil: greens as fresh as the foliage, the oranges of twilights, ochres…These are extremely hardwearing, long-lasting technical textiles, designed to withstand prolonged, intensive use, ideal both for indoors and outdoors. Each fabric boasts a unique composition that combines fibres such as polypropylene (PP) and polyester (PES), with some versions rendered flame retardant (FR) to enhance safety.

To mark MDF 2025, Nyra designed the Gancedo showcase, a space that blends the elements of the collection with the aesthetics of the store in a unique way, highlighting the importance of sustainability and harmony between indoor and outdoor spaces.

The installation invites us to reflect on the impact of contemporary design on our relationship with our surroundings, a message of partnership and respect for cultural roots which, through Gancedo, is conveyed to the public.