The Festival of Ideas, the City and Science Biennial and the Climate Refuge, among the most valued proposals of Spanish culture.

• El Círculo de Bellas Artes It consolidates its position as the fifth most valued cultural institution in the Community of Madrid and climbs to sixth position within the category "Essential cultural centers", at the national level.  

• The City and Science Biennial and the Climate Refuge have been recognized as exemplary projects for their social commitment. 

• The Atlas of Invisible Borders and Radio projects Círculo and Generacción Círculo, with whom el Círculo de Bellas Artes It promotes new formats for reflection and cultural dialogue, and has been recognized by the Observatory of Culture as a benchmark in the field of digital culture. 

The Contemporary Foundation has published the 2025 Culture Observatory, a project involving 980 professionals from the cultural sector across the country. This annual report compiles a series of rankings and indicators related to the cultural activity of our cities and communities, aiming to showcase a wide range of high-quality offerings and providing the endorsement of leading experts in the cultural field.

In this in-depth study of cultural life in Spain, el Círculo de Bellas Artes It ranks nationally as one of the top ten Cultural Centers Essentials Collections in 2025 (ranked number 6). The Festival of Ideas, the Climate Shelter The City and Science Biennial and the City and Science Biennial were three particularly noteworthy projects in the latest edition of the Observatory. These events appear among the most highly valued proposals in the Community of Madrid. The fifth position...el Círculo de Bellas Artes in the region it appears linked to the City and Science Biennial, held last November.  

Furthermore, the Festival of Ideas is consolidating its position as one of the most important cultural events today. In the 2025 edition of the Observatory, the Festival ranks second among essential Literature and Thought Fairs and Festivals at the national level , is among the six most highly valued projects in the Community of Madrid, and occupies twenty-eighth place in this same ranking nationally.

The Climate Refuge has been included, along with the City and Science Biennial, as one of the exemplary projects in its social commitment (in eighth position at the national level).

Finally, the Culture Observatory also includes various initiativesel Círculo de Bellas Artes in the field of digital culture, among them Atlas of Invisible Borders, Radio Círculo y GenerationAction CírculoThrough multimedia formats, audio platforms, and collective reflection projects, these proposals expand the modes of production and circulation of contemporary thought, fostering dialogue around social, cultural, and political issues from diverse and intergenerational perspectives. 

Projects that leave a mark 

Organized by La Fábrica and el Círculo de Bellas Artes, the Festival of Ideas It celebrated its second edition last September and It was supported by thousands of people who filled the streets, squares and cultural spaces of Madrid, turning the city into a great agora of thought. 

With the aim of creating a space for debate between the public and leading figures in international thought, the second edition of the festival revolved around the concept of labyrinths . This invitation to reflect on the paradoxes of our time, our places of confinement or refuge, and our desires for liberation featured authors such as Adriana Cavarero, Camila Sosa, Michel Houellebecq, Pankaj Mishra, Anna Cabellé, and Micharl Ignatieff. The next edition of the Festival will be held from September 17 to 20 under the title “Bodies.”

El Climate Shelter It also belongs to the entire city, conceived as a large open square in which to take refuge from the high temperatures. From July to September, the Ballroom del Círculo (800 2) It becomes a fresh, welcoming space, with abundant vegetation and places to work or relax; a place of well-being, meeting, and creativity in the heart of Madrid. The 2025 edition emphasized the defense of different paces of life and concepts such as pausing, slowing down, or stopping, questioning work models that reward exhaustion and opening the debate on deceleration and care work.   

The City and Science Biennial , organized in collaboration with the Barcelona City Council, was held last November as a major forum for sharing and reflecting on how research and creativity intertwine to address major contemporary challenges. Leading figures from the scientific, artistic, and intellectual spheres, both nationally and internationally , participated in the 130 activities held simultaneously in Madrid and Barcelona. Lectures and discussions (featuring, among others, Sara Alonso, Carlo Rovelli, Juan Ignacio Cirac, Alexandra Olaya-Castro, and Časlav Brukner), workshops, art installations, debates, and activities open to the public brought the latest scientific advances closer to the social and urban fabric of the city, in an edition dedicated to Quantum Physics.

Balance del Círculo in 2025 

El Círculo de Bellas Artes congregated to 437.000 visitors in 2025who participated in the wide range of exhibitions, debates and presentations, concerts, rooftop events, and parties offered by the institution last year. This figure demonstrates the great success of the activities designed by the institution and its leading role in local and national cultural life. 

The director del Círculo, Valerio Rocco, has highlighted the role ofel Círculo as a “benchmark of thought and culture” in our country. Rocco emphasizes that “the institution is more open than ever. Two years ago we launched El Círculo fuera el CírculoThis initiative allows us to engage in dialogue beyond our building and share multidisciplinary projects with institutions across the country. This openness is also reflected in the proposals. town, such as the Festival of Ideas or the City and Science Biennial, which have brought reflection and debate to the streets of Madrid. Similarly, this is reflected in an increasingly diverse and intergenerational program, which attracts different audiences and opens up the Círculo to new forms of participation, encounter, and shared thinking.”  

Throughout 2025, the exhibition proposal del Círculo included samples featuring Max Ernst, Dimitris Pikionis, Robert Capa, Lotty Rosenfeld y nacho bredAnd related to the celebration of the building's centenary, the last quarter of the year was marked by the tribute to Martin Chirino.  

Science, medicine, and ecology have also been featured in the programming of Círculothrough proposals such as the cycle Science, medicine and humanism (organized in conjunction with the Lilly Foundation), which has featured names such as Mariano Barbacid, Carlos Briones, Estrella Montolio, and Martín Barreiro; and the exhibition ¡Aquí hay petróleo! In this project, in collaboration with the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, a reflection on our connections with energy, the body, and the planet was proposed. Also in this vein of exploring the relationship between culture and other disciplines, but adding an intergenerational component (of great importance to the institution), the following project is noteworthy: GenerationAction Círculo, carried out in conjunction with the Banco Sabadell Foundation. The initiative has brought together leading figures from science, the humanities, art, and politics to This initiative has fostered reflection on the advantages of intergenerational teams in the workplace and the value of culture as a social cohesive force. Thanks to this initiative, interesting conversations have emerged, such as those featuring Ana Torrent and Elena del Barrio, Rosa María Calaf and Marta García Aller, and Sonia Mulero and Manuel Zafra.  

Other initiatives, such as the Round table on young poetry & other literatures, the cycles of classical music y jazz, Mythological Christmas, the Carnival,  Night of the Dead and Witches, the hatsu festival < no < oto,  Video Game Arts Orchestra or Gold Medals del Círculo presented to Antonio Scurati and Andrés Rábago “El Roto”, have reunited in el Círculo to a large, diverse and active community that supports programming committed to its time.