Swab, a different art fair in Barcelona

The SWAB fair allows the city of Barcelona to be the epicentre of international emerging art, as is the LOOP fair, although within the video creation section. Therefore, the fair in its 17th edition demonstrates that the commitment by the organisers to show the public what is happening at a creative level in different parts of the world is worth seeing, since there are not too many initiatives of this type in other countries. In addition, the Catalan city is in need of fairs of this kind, since ARTEXPO, which was held in the Montjuïc fairgrounds at the end of the 90s and beginning of the 2000s, there have not been other events that allow the exhibition of the work of avant-garde artists, as well as the main trends that have appeared over the course of the last century.

On this occasion SWAB has the Asian continent as its main exponent. In previous editions, the spotlight was on other creative venues, such as North America and South America. This time, the focus was on a creative scene full of enthusiasm, such as East Asia, centred on the city of Taipei, through various proposals. Other Asian cities, such as Tokyo and Seoul, also participated in the Focus programme, which served to get to know the works of young artists from both countries.

In total, seventy galleries were presented, 23 national and 47 from different parts of the world, which served to contemplate the works of 200 artists. The fair had a series of programmes, among which the General Programme stands out, which is based on showing the works of the galleries with the greatest international projection. On the other hand, the opposite occurs at MyFAF, as it includes inexperienced galleries that have not yet attended national and international fairs.

On this occasion, a new programme has been incorporated into SWAB. It is Design, dedicated entirely to contemporary design. Among the curated sections, Emerging LATAM stands out, which, as the name suggests, focuses on the most innovative proposals in the field of emerging art in Latin America. SOLO Show by Vila Casas focuses on showing projects within the Catalan independent creative circle compared to other territories. Audiovisual production also has a section at the fair through the Video Box programme. Finally, as we have mentioned previously, Focus Tokyo-Seoul focuses on the relationship between both Asian capitals.
Apart from these programmes, other parallel activities also deserve attention, such as the platform for experimentation with artistic proposals in the emerging field, which in this edition has been led by PERHUTANA. It is based on a project by the Indonesian art centre Jatiwangi Art Factory, which has presented the creation of a forest owned by a collective.

Various awards have been given out at the fair, including the award for best Catalan artist and the award for best emerging artist under 35 years of age. In addition, there is a program of acquisitions by various private entities, which has been awarded to the Valencian Claudia Pastomás, with the works Signos de montaje I and II, from the VANGAR gallery (Valencia), as the best emerging artist and which will be part of the Mango collection. Piramidón has acquired two pieces by the same artist, whose titles are S/T II and S/T III, belonging to the Cortezas series, and she will also do a residency at said center.

The works Llorona #2 and Llorona #3 by Valeria Maculan, from the Argentine gallery TRAMO and Llorona #7, have been acquired by José Luis Lorenzo and La Escalera, respectively, and Kells Art Collection has acquired the pieces Lugares atávicos by Juan Antón, from the Gijón art space THA HOUSE + ATM and Exhibition of the nabis by José Cori, represented by the COLLECTIO gallery of Chile.

The Vila Casas Foundation awarded the SWAB Prize for the best Catalan artist to María María Acha-Kutscher, from the Barcelona gallery ADN. It has also acquired Womankid Fly 1 -female humanity- by the same conceptual artist. It is part of a project that consists of investigating photographic archives from various sources, reinterpreting and modifying them as a digital photographic collage, where the figure of the woman is the protagonist. The Bassat Foundation has awarded the Acquisition Prize to Kahmann Gallery (Naarden, Netherlands) for the work A memory present 11 by Asha Swillens.