Mobile Week Barcelona presents the 10 artistic creations that are the focus of Barcelona’s digital art week

• The artistic projects will be exhibited from 20 – 26 February in some of the city’s most emblematic buildings
• The initiative, sponsored by Mobile World Capital Barcelona, will also include 10 dialogues and 10 inspiring routes that will take the impact of digital transformation to Barcelona’s 10 districts

February 16, 2017

Mobile World Capital Barcelona (MWCapital) has presented the artistic projects taking part in Mobile Week Barcelona and which will be exhibited between 20 – 26 February in some of the city’s most emblematic buildings. In an event held at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), Aleix Valls, CEO of MWCapital, Jaume Collboni, second Deputy Mayor for Business, Culture and Innovation, Pepe Serra, Director of the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), and Juan Baselga, Director of Marketing and Corporate Engagement at MWCapital, presented this new initiative that unites the digital world with one of Barcelona’s key sectors: culture.

The pieces, which have been created specifically for Mobile Week Barcelona, were publically presented at the event by the 10 young artists who created them. They are all a combination of art and innovation, and the only requisite behind their creation was that they take their inspiration from digital transformation in order to bring mobile technology closer to the general public through art. The result is an innovative proposal that has assembled artistic installations, painting, photography, collage and video art, among others. After the presentation, the guests visited the piece being exhibited at the MNAC, #PLUG by Gastón Lisak, and took a tour through the city to discover the pieces by Xavi Julià and Daniel Armengol, which are currently being exhibited at the Mobile World Centre in Plaça Catalunya.

The 10 Mobile Week Barcelona artists 

Marta de los Pájaros / Piece: Barcelona Un-published

Type: Contemporary artWhere: Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona(Natural Sciences Museum of Barcelona), Sant Martí

Description: “Barcelona Un-published” uses collage to explore technology’s capacity to transform urban landscapes. 

Daniel Armengol / Piece: I am a strange loop

Type: InstallationWhere: Mobile World Centre (Ciutat Vella)

Description: A mirror reflecting into another mirror. A selfie as the projection of the self. What appears to be a screen using a mobile telephone to take a self portrait is in fact a smartphone using a screen to see its reflection. Psychodelia. 

Gastón Lisak / Piece: #PLUGType: Interactive installation

Where: Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (Sants-Montjuïc)

Description: #PLUG is an interactive installation that follows the lifecycle of a #hashtag on Twitter in real time. A piece that reflects on the use of, and dependence on, digital devices, inviting the visitor to take part. 

Xavi Julià / Piece: Plaça Catalunya, 2017 – Enganxats al mòbil

Type: PaintingWhere: La Violeta de Gràcia (Gràcia)

Description: “I spent two afternoons in a coffee shop in Plaça Catalunya taking photographs with a zoom lens and watching the people who went by. I discovered that very few of the people I watched finished their journey without looking at their phone. I realised that a mobile phone keeps us company when we’re walking on our own, but it is also a (new) way of relating to the people around us.” 

Fèlix Vinyals / Piece: Orwell 3000

Type: Installation and video art

Where: L’Auditori (Eixample)

Description: “Orwell 3000” is presented in a video art installation: a new concept in pacemakers that will revolutionize the way dictators govern their totalitarian regimes. 

Alicia Way / Piece: Cronos

Type: Video art

Where: Institut Químic de Sarrià (Sarrià-Sant Gervasi)

Description: Barcelona’s digital transformation can be interpreted through its citizens’ change in habits. “Cronos”, represented on a clock that measures Barcelona’s time, will create a circular map of our view of the city by condensing multiple perspectives. 

Sovni / Piece: Barcelona, sueño profundo

Type: Video artWhere: Parc Tecnològic (Barcelona Nord Technology Park, Nou Barris)

Description: A series of images of an extraordinary Barcelona created using the Google DeepStyle algorithm, and an allegory of the city in the fields of technology and art; a city that has traditionally adopted styles and technologies in order to create its own unique language. 

Fernando Vilariño / Piece: @BrossaInèdit

Type: Digital installation

Where: Ignasi Iglésias Can Fabra Library (Sant Andreu)

Description: @BrossaInèdit is a transdisciplinary project that seeks to re-evaluate digital collections thanks to contributions from the public. Poems by Joan Brossa are displayed, on which the general public can make a note of the feelings or emotions they produce in them. 

Fernando Vilariño / Piece: @BrossaInèdit

Type: Digital installation

Where: Ignasi Iglésias Can Fabra Library (Sant Andreu)

Description: @BrossaInèdit is a transdisciplinary project that seeks to re-evaluate digital collections thanks to contributions from the public. Poems by Joan Brossa are displayed, on which the general public can make a note of the feelings or emotions they produce in them. 

Daniel Duato / Piece: Extramurs

Type: Video art

Where: Ateneu Fabricació Les Corts (Les Corts)

Description: This piece shows a satellite image of Barcelona on a screen and displays the interactions between social media users in Barcelona and other parts of the world. The image changes in real time, briefly transforming the areas of the city the users are in into the parts of the world they are interacting with through social media. 

Mobile Week Barcelona: 10 dialogues, 10 creations, 10 routes

Mobile Week Barcelona is a civic project that connects spaces for innovation with cultural, scientific and research centres and opens them to every profession (scientists, artists, thinkers etc.). The initiative, which will take place between 20 – 26 February, proposes three types of activities that are free and open to the general public. The city’s 10 districts will host 10 dialogues (conversations with experts), 10 routes (through each district’s most innovative spaces) and the 10 artistic creations presented today.

The dialogues, 10 conversations that will take place twice daily between 20–24 February (13:00 – 14:30 and 19:00 to 21:00), will feature entrepreneurs, artists, scholars, thinkers, creators and scientists. Some of the nearly 60 speakers whose presence has already been confirmed include Marc Vidal, a digital transformation consultant; Josep Ramoneda, a journalist, philosopher and writer; Francesca Bría, Chief Technology and Digital Innovation Officer at Barcelona City Hall; and Josep A. Planell, Dean of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, among others. Together with Mobile World Capital Barcelona representatives, they will all address the social, cultural and economic impact of digital transformation.

Lastly, in addition to the artistic creations, the planned programme also includes 10 inspiring routes through Barcelona’s 10 districts which aim to rediscover the city’s most important spaces for creation, innovation, digital culture, technology and thinking.