Madrid’s venerable MediaLab-Prado is in trouble.

MediaLab-Prado, located here in Madrid, is on the cutting edge of investigative practises related to Free Culture and Commons. It’s also one of the collaborative spaces where the initial gestalt of the 15M movement was born. 7 million Euros of public funds was invested by the local government in the rehabilitation of an historic building in Madrid (the Sierra Belga), in order to house MediaLab. The building was leased as a public space for the development of the lab’s activities, projects and openly accessible workshops. On Friday, April 4th, Madrid’s local government’s plan was revealed. They intend to rent out this public space – again, paid for with public funds and for public use – to Telefónica.