MADRID.- Madrid celebrated culture with its third Noche en Blanco, in which, apart form opening the doors of the museums and art centers, took advantage of its open spaces to offer, for a few hours, a different image of the city.

La Noche en Blanco is part of the European White Nights network, which already includes Paris, Brussels, Madrid, Riga and Bucharest as members, and this year s celebrated the joining of La Valleta, Malta. All the European events have already become a major benchmark in contemporary art for their citizens, with the added value that everything is free of charge and with its ability to promote civic attitudes and arouse an interest in art, culture and the city.

For the third edition, the City of Madrid programmed 172 activities, such as exhibitions, open air exhibitions, air shows, concerts and original set ups beside historic monuments.

Some of the most important were: the more than 40 meters that high-wire walker Jade Kindar crossed between the Instituto Cervantes and Círculo de Bellas Artes. The plaza outside the Santiago Bernabeu stadium hosted a sky dancing spectacle.

Lights and color formed part of the exhibition that Italian Giancarlo Neri showed on the shores of the Manzanares, so that visitors “could find their own meaning”.

The botanical garden held an audiovisual spectacle in which flowers grew and “blew up” to the rythm of the music.

The exchanges of artists and cultural expressions among the different cities are joined together in this edition by the Greek artist Miltos Manetas' commission to produce a new work, in digital format, that can be seen on the website nochesblancaseuropa.eu and that is to become the network's common Internet portal. The work, which is called Ching-I.com, will include participation by any citizens wanting to take part, who can send messages to each other through a fascinating forest of virtual trees which represent the European White Nights network.