Humane treatment and accessibility to culture are at the forefront in an event that seeks to break the barriers and elitism that often characterize the contemporary art scene – the aim of Swab art fair
Swab Barcelona: experimentation and emerging talents at the center of the art fair
Swab Barcelona showcases the latest trends in contemporary art, acting as a platform for experimentation and emerging artists. The 16th edition features seven programs packed with new art, with a preference for abstraction.
General Program, for already established galleries; Emerging, for galleries that have been on the scene for less than five years; Emerging LATAM, showcasing Latin American contemporary artists; Swab seed, focusing on independent art galleries and new platforms; the SOLO Show by Villa Casas, dedicated to Catalan interdisciplinary projects; My First Art Fair, for galleries that have been on the art scene for up to two years and have never taken part in a fair before; and Video Box, about the latest trends in video art. These are the selected sections for the 2023 edition.
Swab aims particularly to project local talent to the rest of the world, leaving behind figurative art in favor of abstract scenarios with surrealist strokes and colorful landscapes.
Swab, an independent project and experimental platform for emerging art forms
Swab was born in 2006 as an independent project and experimental platform for emerging art forms. Founded by architect and collector Joaquín Diez-Cascón, Swab is an event that brings together international galleries. It acts as a meeting point for the cultural sector on a global scale. With 15 editions under its belt, the fair remains committed to supporting the spaces and disciplines that are changing the arts landscape.
Swab defines itself as a human scale fair, prioritizing quality programs and accessibility to a wide audience. Humane treatment and accessibility to culture are at the forefront in an event that seeks to break the barriers and elitism that often characterize the contemporary art scene.
Swab contemporary art fair, artistic quality and commitment to Barcelona in a new location
The 16th edition will take place in a new location to accommodate the growing numbers of Swab. The Textile Pavilion of Fira de Barcelona, located at Avenida Rius i Taulet, 10 (a few meters from the Italian Pavilion, where the fair has been held to date). Located on the site of the former Palace of Textile Art built for the 1929 Barcelona EXPO, the pavilion, of industrial aesthetics boasts an area of over 3000 square meters.
The new location embodies Swab’s commitment to Barcelona, shining a spotlight on the cosmopolitan character of the Mediterranean capital. A cultural melting pot united by art, Swab Barcelona counts on a selection committee made up of curators and artistic directors – Omar Lopez-Chahoud, from the Untitled Miami fair, Jérôme Pantalacci, from the French Art-o-Rama fair, Isa Natalia Castilla, from the Material Fair in Mexico City, Domenico de Chirico, independent curator, and collectors José Luis Lorenzo, Marie Elena Angulo, Jesper Stieler and Pedro Jaile.
Feria Swab General Program, participating national and international art galleries
The General Program includes national and international galleries with a consolidated trajectory in the contemporary art scene. This year, the program will feature 39 galleries, including, among others, Anna Nova Gallery (St. Petersburg), Artnueve (Murcia), ATM Galería (Gijón) + Espacio Valverde (Madrid), Bianca Boeckel (São Paulo), Contemporary Cluster (Rome), Ángeles Baños Gallery (Badajoz), Fran Reus (Palma de Mallorca), Isabel Hurley Gallery (Malaga).
Emerging and Emerging LATAM program, Swab as a platform for young galleries
The Emerging program will feature Albert Contemporary (Odense), Bold (Prague), DS Galerie (Paris), LUPO (Milan), Mahara+Co (Miami), and SISSI club (Marseille).
The Emerging LATAM program, curated by Argentine curator and gallerist Santiago Gasquet, co-director of PIEDRAS gallery (Buenos Aires), features emerging artists in the Latin American contemporary art scene. The 2023 lineup includes: collectio (Chile), Bloc Art Gallery (Lima), Espacio Enhorabuena (Madrid), Galeria Grasa (Buenos Aires), Now Gallery (San Isidoro, Peru), and Remota Galería (Salta, Argentina).
Swab Seed, the program shaking up the contemporary art scene
The Swab Seed program showcases ten independent spaces run by up-and-coming experimental artists. In this edition, Swab Seed will feature Awol (Los Angeles), CU29 (Plovdiv, Bulgaria), Colette Mariana (Barcelona), HARABEL (Tirana), Kunsthalle.Ost (Leipzig), La Raíz (Granada), Lí Gallery (Shanghai), Mmundo (New York), NVS (Lisbon), Studio Beta (Barcelona/Berlin) and Yafteh Gallery (Tehran).
SOLO Show by Vila Casas: four independent projects from the Catalan territory at Swab
The SOLO Show by Vila Casas program, curated by the young independent curators Carla Gimeno and Margot Cuevas in collaboration with the Fundació Vila Casas, exhibits four independent projects from the Catalan territory, through a solo exhibition featuring avant-garde trends. A program that seeks to promote new curatorship and generate dialogues between territories of the Mediterranean arc. Swab thus reaffirms its roots in the territory and claims its local essence.
The program, sponsored by the Fundació Vila Casas, will feature FOC (Barcelona), Cultural Rizoma (Celrà), Half House (Barcelona), and Espai19 (Barcelona).
My First Art Fair, a program for beginners
The My First Art Fair program selects three young contemporary art galleries, under two years old, that have not yet participated in any international fair. To help promote new emerging galleries, Swab offers this space free of charge. The program will feature Ballroom Gallery (Brussels), Galeria Fermay (Palma de Mallorca), and Julie Caredda (Paris).
Video Box, a non-profit program for audiovisual projects at Swab
The non-profit program Video Box is dedicated to the latest trends in video art in territories with a developing cultural fabric. This year, the focus is on Southeast Asia. Alfonse Chiu, curator of this edition, selected eight artists who work on the concept of frontier, an artistic dialogue through the limits established by colonialism in these territories.
Under the title Home/Land, Video Box will feature the following artists: Robert Zhao Renhui and Zarina Muhammad, from Singapore; Shireen Seno, from the Philippines; Prapat Jiwarangsan, from Thailand; Tuân Mami and Lêna Bùi, from Vietnam; Lim Sokchanlina, from Cambodia, and Riar Rizaldi, from Indonesia among others.
On Wednesday, October 3 (7 p.m.), as a preview of the fair, the Video Box program will offer a screening of short films at the Cine Zumzeig in Barcelona. The screening will include: ‘The Story of Ones’, by Phạm Ngọc Lân (Vietnam, 2011), about the hardships inflicted by the Communist Party of Vietnam; ‘Saudade’, by Russell Morton (Singapore, 2019), about the first Eurasian villages; ‘Mouthbreather’, by Tiyan Baker (Australia / Malaysia, 2023), a piece in which the artist walks through his ancestral land, and ‘Terpesona dengan Kegelisahan’, by Nadiah Bamadhaj (Malaysia, 2022), a free reinterpretation of a ‘militaristic ritual’ that went viral on social media. After the screening, the curator of the program, Alfonse Chiu, and Álvaro Gurrea, a director specializing in Southeast Asian cinema, will offer a Q&A.
Special programs: awards, acquisitions and KidsSwab Thinks
Different cultural institutions, foundations and collectors are part of the Acquisitions Program, committing to acquire at least one work exhibited at the fair for their collections. This year’s program includes: Fundació Sorigué, Fundació Bassat, the collector José Luis Lorenzo, the private collection La Escalera, Kells Arts Collection and MARVAL.
In addition, two prizes will be awarded during Swab 2023: Fundació Vila Casa, to the best Catalan artist, and Mango, to the best emerging artist under 35 years old.
Moreover, every year, Swab dedicates a space to the youngest art lovers through Swab Kids, a program that seeks to promote artistic development in children’s education. For this edition, the fair has teamed up with Mister Karton, an eco-design studio from Barcelona focused on cardboard projects, which will explore the concept of sustainability through creativity. Mister Karton will offer a space open to all children who want to play with their imagination.
SWAB Barcelona
The International Contemporary Art Fair of Barcelona will see its 16th edition from October 5to October 8, 2023. It will feature 70 galleries, of which 27 Spanish and 43 international, showcasing 200 artists from 21 different countries.
