On 2 May 2026, it will be twenty years since the web/publications department of MACBA initiated Ràdio Web MACBA. What started in 2016 as a way of bringing team members together by slowing things down and sharing ideas among each other, has turned into a platform for critical thinking, working with artists, knowledge transfer and ‘Radio Beyond Radio’. We had a conversation with Anna Ramos, coordinator of Radio Web MACBA, who shared with us some of the history, reflections and lessons gained throughout the journey of the radio.

 

Tell us a bit about how the radio started and how it came to be?

Radio Web MACBA started as an intuitive digital initiative by the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona, in a moment  –just a few years before the 2008 recession and its profound effects on the public and cultural sectors – when ‘podcast’ was still a term many people had to look up on Wikipedia. It emerged from a focus on content rather than format or technical mastery, embracing an amateur spirit of experimentation and a process of learning by doing.

 

What is Ràdio Web MACBA’s approach to radio, could you define the idea of ‘Radio Beyond Radio’?

It’s a poetic license, a bit of a stretch, perhaps, but one that we want to hold on to. In paying homage to the legacy of listening, to the act of recording conversations so they may travel and be heard by others –as in broadcasting–, we remain attuned to the experimental ethos and latency of radio amateurism and to the aesthetic wanderings of radio artists across the airwaves. From that point of departure, something else begins to unfold. ‘Radio Beyond Radio’ is a way for us to think of radio not as a fixed format, but as an open field. It allows us to stretch what radio can be  –slowing it down, making it more conversational, more experimental, and more attentive to how thinking unfolds through sound and orality.

 

How has Ràdio Web MACBA evolved during these past 20 years?

We’ve approached podcasting in a non-conventional way, and over 20 years, we’ve been lucky to carve out a space that feels entirely our own. Over time, our podcasts have become less about sharp, contained exchanges and more about duration and thinking out loud. We also take a feminist approach to the editing process, thinking critically about what gets cut, embracing doubts, silence, thought process, acknowledging the presence of our bodies, among other aspects. We’re less concerned with clarity as speed, or with summarizing ideas quickly, and more with creating the conditions for conversations to wander –so that unexpected connections can emerge, and getting off track becomes part of the process. We seek a certain suspension of time, where thinking becomes collective, and we understand this as a space for learning  –from each other, and from every conversation. Curating the archive is also crucial for us. 

 

How did the collaboration between Ràdio Web MACBA and RIE impact the radio?

It’s been pure composting: of practices, voices, and learnings. From facilitating residencies and commissions music and sound libraries alongside sound artists and members of the RWM Working Group, to connecting us with the practices, research and workflows of other consortium partners. One way this has taken form is through the making of podcasts –spaces where our practices and research meet, mingle, and resonate with those of our fellows.

 

Any valuable lessons you’ve taken from Ràdio Web MACBA?  

Many. We’ve come to understand listening and thinking as a political practice, in the sense proposed by Rolando Vázquez Melken. We’ve also come to see our community not just as listeners, but as the hands and hearts that sustain the project: a wide array of guests, collaborators, and allies. And at the core of it all: the Radio Web MACBA Working Group, which started in 2016 with a modest idea: bring the closest members of the team together, slow things down, share a physical space, and see what might unfold. It was a simple, generous gesture –once a month, eleven times a year, we made time, despite packed schedules, to gather, cook, and just be together. Around those moments, we exchange our current obsessions and methods, think out loud, and learn from one another. So plenty of lessons there…