Palo Alto Market
The Palo Alto Market is not your average monthly street fair. When you step through the gates, you feel like you’ve entered a tiny world unto itself, populated by musicians, artisans, designers and chefs. It is, as director and founder Pedrin Mariscal calls it, “an urban oasis, to be enjoyed with all five senses”. And, this December the market celebrates its second birthday.
The Palo Alto Market’s 3,700 m2 space is divided into four outdoor streets (Principal Avenue, Food Street, Central Street and Bugambilia Street) and three interior galleries (Art Gallery, Espai Black and Espai Blanc). It houses approximately 100 exhibitors at any one time. The multidisciplinary art and design on sale has a strong emphasis on alternative aesthetics, and you can browse handmade crafts, recycled products, street art, restored vintage objects and emerging design trends. Add music and street theatre performances, and you have a magical environment in the middle of the increasingly up-and-coming Poblenou.
The seeds for Palo Alto were planted in the Nineties, when internationally renowned designer Javier Mariscal stumbled across an abandoned factory while searching for a place to open his studio. He and his partners created the Palo Alto Market Foundation in order to rescue the dilapidated space. Nearly two decades later, it was Javier’s brother and collaborator, Pedrin Mariscal, who decided to take his concept of design to a higher level, while simultaneously opening the door to a younger generation of local artists and creators. The conversion of the old factory into the market became his biggest work of art, a functional installation open to the entire city. Pedrin’s concept was “to give young designers the opportunity to showcase their work in an atmosphere that blends street flavour and sophistication”.
Paula Mariscal, who is responsible for Palo Alto’s press and communications, says that the key to their success is the team’s passion for the project, combined with their unwavering standards. The market receives five or six times as many proposals each month as they have space to accommodate, so when faced with the choice between quality and brand recognition—for example, an interesting unknown versus a name in the art world that may be more familiar but not necessarily 'better'—they choose quality every single time. “Our team invests hours upon hours in making these decisions,” she says. “We choose to back the projects that we believe will surprise and delight the public, and that are in keeping with our values (social, environmental, artistic, emotional, etc.).” For example, this season the Palo Alto team has partnered with a solidarity project called Nomad Soul, which connects Western designers with artisans from poorer countries.
They also work with local independent record labels. The October 2016 edition of the market, entitled Post Pop, was organised in collaboration with music label CANADA.
Paula says that another secret to their success is that 70 percent of the organisational team is from Valencia. “Our vision has always been to create an ambitious market and to keep evolving and improving as much as possible from one edition to the next. But as with all Valencianos, it’s also important to us that a playful and fun element is present in anything that we do.”
The Mariscals and their team have big plans for this coming year, which include bringing the Palo Market Fest to Barcelona and Madrid. The Fest is a separate musical event that the Palo Alto Market Foundation inaugurated in Valencia in May of this year.