ISSUE NO. 31
At it’s 17th edition, Swab Barcelona is an independent art fair founded by architect and collector Joaquín Diez-Cascón in Barcelona in 2006. Gathering together up to eighty galleries from the international scene, the event functions as a meeting point for the cultural sector on a global scale, suggesting the centrale role of Barcelona. This year’s edition, that will take place from October 3 to 6 2024 at Textile pavilion of the Montjuic exhibitions, in Barcelona, focuses on East Asia, and in particular the cities of Tokyo, Seoul and Taipei. We spoke to Joaquín Diez-Cascón about the the history of the art fair and to Carolina Diez-Cascón about the curated programme, the performances, Swab Radio and Swab Kids.
«The first edition was held in 2007 and at that time the art scene was dispersed (there were 3 associations of galleries) and there were almost no independent spaces. Likewise, there were no activities to promote artistic knowledge. Today the situation is very different. With a powerful association which is Art Barcelona that carries out diverse initiatives and a large number of independent spaces with a very powerful interconnection. We can say that today Barcelona has a broad and high quality cultural fabric. Manifesta 15 can bring to the city the recovery of architectural spaces of great interest, many of them unknown and located in municipalities of the metropolitan area. It can be an impulse to create new synergies and enhance both the artistic and architectural circuit of the metropolitan area and thus offer a differential eccentric offer», explains the director Joaquín Diez-Cascón.
The art fair opens up to the global scene while at the same time furthering the city’s own art tradition. Other than being the home for art institutions such as the MACBA, the MNAC, the Picasso Museum, CCCB, Hangar, La Virreina, CaixaForum, Arts Santa Mònica, and Fabra i Coats, the Miró, Tàpies, Suñol, and Vila Casas, to name a few, major international events have been held in the city of Barcelona – a tradition dating back to the Universal Exposition of 1888, that continued over a century later, with the Olympic Games in 1992; this year it will host Manifesta 15, Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana, the largest edition to date. The 17th edition of Swab Barcelona introduces, for the first time, a program dedicated to the growing convergence between contemporary art and design, establishing a dialogue between aesthetic innovation and practical functionality through unique and tangible pieces. Barcelona, known for its unique architecture, Catalan modernism, and progressive approach to urban design, offers fertile ground for experimentation and innovation in this field. Swab has chosen to showcase various projects that define the contemporary design scene, including two galleries, a design studio, and an independent creator. Each will present, from their own perspective, a display framed within the liminal space between design and art.The director explains the importance of hosting the independent art fair in the Catalan capital:
«Barcelona, as a port city, has historically been a space of confluence, a meeting point between cultures. In recent decades, it has consolidated its role as a nexus between America, Asia and Europe, acting as an open door to new global dynamics. While it is a city in constant evolution, its identity deeply rooted in modernism – with its emphasis on color, nature and innovation – has generated a significant dialogue with Asia, especially with emerging regions that share similarities with Barcelona’s historical moment. Being an architect with an artistic background and a permanent relationship with the architectural trends of the world and their influence on the visual arts, as well as a regular visit to international art fairs helped me to have a differential and broad vision of what an emerging art fair should be like, one that would reflect these trends and contribute to the city of Barcelona while interacting with the cultural fabric of the city».
Swab Barcelona presents Swab Seed, the program that sheds a spotlight on alternative spaces that present other ways of exhibiting from the traditional gallery concept. This section embraces formats like itinerant galleries and artist-run collectives. By providing a platform for galleries operating outside conventional frameworks, Seed drives innovative approaches to exhibitions and interactions among artistic agents, encouraging exchange. Participants in the fair find an inclusive and dynamic environment, reflecting the true diversity of today’s contemporary art practices. This year’s partecipants are: All Art Now (Damascus, Syria); Casa Espacio (Barcelona); Chilli Art Projects (London); NAAN (Tirana, Albania) and OLA LAB (Barcelona).
«The contemporary art scene is in constant transformation, adapting to the dynamics and demands of today’s society. The escalation of real estate prices, both for housing and commercial premises, has generated an increasingly adverse environment for young galleries, making it difficult to establish and maintain a long-term sustainable exhibition program. In response to these conditions, new alternatives have emerged that redefine the relationship between art and its exhibition spaces. These alternatives include the emergence of nomadic spaces, digital platforms and collective forms of organization, such as self-managed spaces, where artists themselves take an active role in the representation and promotion of their work within collectives. These models reflect the new social dynamics, in which self-management and collaboration emerge as responses to the structural challenges of the art market», claims Joaquín.
Swab Barcelona’s artistic program is curated by a selection committee, composed of key figures from the art world, such as: curators Omar Lopez-Chahoud (Artistic Director of UNTITLED Miami fair), Jérôme Pantalacci (Director of Art-o-rama Marseille fair), Isa Natalia Castilla (Director of Material fair, Mexico City), Domenico de Chirico (Artistic Director of MIA Art Fair, Milan), Isa Natalia Castilla (Director of the Material fair, Mexico City), Domenico de Chirico (Artistic Director of MIA Art Fair, Milan), along with collectors Marie Elena Angulo, Pedro Jaile, Jesper Stieler, Laura Peh and José Luis Lorenzo. We asked the director Joaquín how the sections General, Emerging and MYFAF dialogue.
«Swab’s General, Emerging and MYFAF programs aim to reflect the latest trends in the contemporary art scene. The General program brings together consolidated galleries that, although they already have a trajectory in the art circuit, present fresh and emerging proposals from their repertoire at Swab. In the case of Emerging, the focus is on galleries with less than five years of existence, young in their development but that have already begun to establish themselves on the international scene. Finally, MYFAF is dedicated to galleries with less than two years of activity that, for the first time, have access to a fair thanks to a scholarship program designed to facilitate their entry into the fair circuit. These three programs seek to foster an artistic ecosystem in which galleries from different backgrounds coexist without hierarchies, joining forces to promote emerging practices. The collaboration between art professionals and collectors establishes an essential balance in the fair, combining a rigorous search for innovative and high quality proposals in the contemporary panorama, with a sensitivity towards the dynamics and expectations of current collecting. This selection positions Swab as a meeting place that not only promotes the discovery of new voices, but also responds to the demands of the market with a critical and contemporary vision», adds Joaquín.
A central program of this edition is Focus Tokyo-Seoul, curated by Korean artist and curator Kelvin Kyung Kun Park. Under the title Tentacles of Thought (from an Octopus), the project aims to present in Barcelona diverse artistic sensibilities from exhibition spaces in Tokyo and Seoul. With the aim to highlight East Asia, and in particular Tokyo and Seoul. The six spaces will be presented to collectively define the artistic essence of the territory, offering a unique perspective, helping to define the vibrant tapestry of the contemporary art scene in their respective local areas. Tentacles of Thought is an attempt to bring together artistic sensibilities of exhibition spaces from Seoul and Tokyo, presented in Barcelona in the spirit of the octopus’ tentacle, explains the curator.
«The program Tentacles of Thought, curated by Kelvin Kyung Kun Park, brings together six spaces from Seoul and Tokyo. Its curatorial approach uses the octopus in the culinary cultures of Spain, Korea, and Japan as a metaphor for the flexibility and adaptability of contemporary thought. The program, employs the octopus to reflect on the impact of the pandemic and the technological acceleration on our perceptions of the present. The historical narrative of the octopus, traditionally seen as a symbol of threat, is reinterpreted to illustrate how belief systems and globalization challenge our worldviews, suggesting a more decentralized and sensory perspective in art», explains Carolina Diez-Cascón, the artistic director.
Not only the East Asian artistic scene will be represented, but also the local scene of Catalonia. The Solo Show project is a platform dedicated to local independent spaces from Barcelona in dialogue with the ones from Taipei. In collaboration with the Fundació Vila Casas, this project not only aims to promote local artistic talents, but also that of new emerging figures in the field of curating. The Fundació Vila Casas, founded in 1986 by the pharmaceutical entrepreneur Antoni Vila Casas, is a private, non-profit organisation that has the promotion of contemporary Catalan art as its main aim. Under title The blue color of my sky, the exhibition they present explores how Barcelona based and Taiwanese artists mutually construct a world, showing how they both play a part in the process of modernization. The proposals are eight, four from each place, under the curatorship of Yipei Lee (Taipei) and Carla Gimeno Jaria (Barcelona).
«The Solo Show project highlights the importance of connecting independent and peripherical spaces which are very innovative in their own territories but rarely participate in international art fairs. We find very important to create a space for the encounter between them, to share their ideas and practices. By promoting direct collaboration between these spaces. Solo Show also strengthens collective curatorial work and fosters the development of new curatorial perspectives», adds Carolina.
The section Causes Emerging Latam showcases the production of Latin American artists otherwise under-represented. In its fourth edition, it consolidates as a platform for exchange between six emerging spaces in cities such as Buenos Aires, Lima, Santiago de Chile, Rosario and Guadalajara. This year’s focus is the notion of fluidity, exploring how artistic production in Latin America acts as a substance that flows, spreads and adopts the specific form of each country, province, city or community, and that without attempting to define a regional identity, reflects and embraces the inherent diversity of a broad and complex territory. Sixteen artists navigate through reflections on issues of the present and provide a critical and dynamic perspective of the Latin American context within the framework of global debates, explains the curator Santiago Gasquet in the curatorial text.
«It is essential to provide a platform and visibility for new Latin American spaces, not only due to the outstanding quality of their artistic programs but also because of the many threads that connect our territories. Santiago Gasquet, the program curator and artist and gallerist of Piedras in Argentina, aims to highlight the inherent diversity of the region without imposing a unified regional identity, thus allowing for an authentic and plural representation», explains the artistic director Carolina.
This year’s Video Box edition focuses on the cultural landscape of Taipei. The city hosts a growing community of emerging digital and new media artists. The artists of this section present a transformative project that not only mirrors the avant-garde spirit of the new digital artistic generation, but also underscores the influential and emergent role that Taipei’s artistic scene is currently playing. The aim is to show the dynamism and groundbreaking creativity from the Taipei region, spotlighting its profound impact on the global art stage. Through the theme Intimacy: the Moments of Social Skin, the exhibition delves into the contemporary topics of geopolitics, gender, power and culture that have shaped Taiwanese contemporary social development since the 1990s, as explained by curator Yipei Lee.
«The Video Box program, supported by the Swab Foundation, is dedicated to promoting video art projects from regions known for their innovation in this medium or that face limitations in accessing international circuits due lack of institutional structures. In the upcoming edition, Video Box focuses on the vibrant cultural landscape of Taipei, highlighting its emerging digital art community. Curated by Yipei Lee, the exhibition ‘Intimacy: the Moments of Social Skin’ examines how geopolitics, gender, and culture have influenced contemporary social development in Taiwan. Using video imagery and narratives, the show explores the relationship between the body and society, revealing the complex dynamics of identity and social status in a globally interconnected context», explains Carolina.
Perhutana by collective Jatiwangi art Factory is part of the New Rural Agenda movement reclaiming eight hectares of land in Jatiwangi for a conservatory forest. This forest is meant as future investment for all inhabitants of the earth. Established in 2005, Jatiwangi art Factory (JaF) is a community that embraces contemporary arts and cultural practices as part of the local life discourse in a rural area. Their manifold activities, always involving the local public, include: a video festival, Village Video Festival; a music festival, the Ceramic Music Festival (CMF); a residency program, Jaf Air; a discussion series, Forum 27an; a TV, Jaf TV; a radio station, Jaf Radio.which will present its project Perhutana at Swab, with the support of Romero Polo y Piramidón. Launched in the framework of the last edition of Documenta 15, the initiative distributes works that involve the creation of a collectively owned forest.
«Jatiwangi Art Factory (JaF), founded in 2005, is a community that integrates contemporary arts and cultural practices into the everyday life of a rural area in Indonesia. For the past 10 years, the area of Jatiwangi has been planned by the Indonesian government as part of a strategic industrial development and, in response, JaF is developing strategies for its region to be catalogued of ecological and cultural significance, to build from that space alternative discourses to technocentrism. They started the project PERHUTANA at Documenta 15, where they were an important part. The project consists of reclaiming an 8 hectare plot of land from the industrial development plan and turning it into a sacred forest, utilizing the transactional logic of a real estate company as a method of collective action. By participating in PERHUTANA one gets a 4sqm plot of land that will later be donated for the creation of the forest, a terracotta certificate, designed and made by artists from Jatiwangi Art Factory and a digital certificate», adds Carolina.
This year Swab Barcelona presents the performance Porto Stand’s 2024, by Portuguese collectives Marmol Project and Terramoto Studio. In response to Portugal’s socio-political context, marked by a growing economic and housing crisis, both projects are joining forces to present, exhibit, and commercialize contemporary art produced in the city of Porto. Their proposal for Swab 2024 features activations designed to foster a provocative and dynamic dialogue with the fair’s visitors. The presentation begins with a performance-installation and the space will then be transformed into a commercial office, where printed catalogues will bring to life the works of artists created exclusively for the fair. The aim is to establish a meeting point between visitors and Porto’s contemporary art scene, which has been, and continues to be, one of the hardest hit by the crisis.
«Marmol Project and Terramoto Studio present Porto Stands’s 2024, a performance addressing the economic and real estate crisis in Portugal through the exhibition and commercialization of contemporary art from Oporto. Their proposal transforms the space into a commercial office, where printed catalogues display works created specifically for the fair, bridging the gap between visitors and the art market of Oporto, which has been severely impacted by the crisis. The performance includes an interactive component, unfolding spontaneously throughout the fair’s aisles. This intervention engages the audience and positions art as a catalyst for reflection and manifestation. It aims to generate dialogue about the current situation in Oporto, highlighting its role as a microcosm of contemporary global challenges. From the fair’s perspective, this performance is seen as an opportunity to stimulate collective social reflection on current and future housing issues in a globalized context, thereby contributing to a meaningful debate on the future of art and housing», explains Carolina.
Swab Radio is a series of conversations addressing the issues of identity, tradition and future at the core of the fair. The curators, artists and gallerists participating will address issues about the potential of art in the formation of cultural identities. They will also discuss the various ways in which many art forms draw from their local traditions to express their identity in a globalized and hypermediated world. In this context, Swab Radio will open dialogues on what is today the relationship of attachment or de-association with our roots and how we build our identities as we move towards a future that seems increasingly homogeneous. Swab dedicates a space at the fair to kids. The program Swab Kids, through Mister Karton House, a company founded by Martín and Mireia, based in Mataró, Barcelona, with roots in Patagonia. The company offers throughout the fair artistic workshops that stimulate the creative side of children, teaching them to imagine and create under the theme of sustainability.
«Through the radio program, we aim to create a space for discussion on the various topics emerging in this edition. The purpose of this program is to foster a dynamic exchange and a forum for reflection, from which new perspectives can be considered and contribute to the advancement of the global art landscape. This dialogue not only enriches the understanding of the topics addressed but also promotes continuous evolution in the field of art», concludes the artistic director Carolina Diez-Cascón.
Swab is an independent art fair and experimental platform for emerging artistic proposals born in 2006.
Founded by architect and collector Joaquín Diez-Cascón, Swab is an event that brings together up to 80 galleries from the international scene and functions as a meeting point for the cultural sector on a global scale.
With 16 editions under its belt, the fair faces 2024 while maintaining its mission of supporting the spaces and disciplines that are changing the course of the art scene. This edition will take place from October 3 to 6, 2024.
ISSUE NO. 31
Lampoon is a cultural magazine.
Culture today means sustainability – in its honest meaning.
Culture has always been about human respect, tolerance. It’s not only about accepting human diversity but it’s about searching for the beauty of every human peculiarity.
Inclusion is the first value that defines art. Culture today means one thing only: to be part of a community, to think as a community.
Reading Lampoon, you see that these themes are smoothly aligned. A good part of the articles’ content discusses practices to restore our environment and stories about understanding the others.
Reading Lampoon, you find a dialogue between science and creativity. From sharp and edgy photo sessions to fashion, architecture, technology – the commitment is dedicated to a future that is all about us – together.
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