Ephemeral
The Ephemeral program aims to activate inert or unused spaces within the fairgrounds, resignifying them by placing artistic installations curated by collaborating foundations such as Raro and Fundació Úniques. The presence of these works introduces other temporalities, sensibilities, and ways of inhabiting space, making Ephemeral a curatorial device that questions the very nature of the event and proposes new forms of experience for the public.
r.a.r.o. BARCELONA
Casa R.A.R.O. On-Site Projects is a space of more than 300 m² located in the heart of Ciutat Vella, conceived for artistic production, research, and dissemination. This center consolidates and expands the itinerant model of R.A.R.O. residencies, offering workshops, training, and exhibition projects.
It has a shared workshop and areas for national and international residents, who develop their projects in dialogue with the community and present them in a monthly Open Studio. It also includes a specific area for research and a gallery dedicated to contemporary art, integrated into the main local and international circuits.
Discursive Structures of Material Memory
The work reflects on the fragility of memory and the mechanisms of control that shape it, articulating material memory and the institutionalized body. Fragmented sculptures evoke ruins of incomplete narratives and the logic of the archive, always partial and selective. An iron structure supports both the fragments and a surveillance system, as a metaphor for the production of disciplined bodies. The use of analogue cameras introduces a temporal fold. where the institutional gaze is revealed and questioned. The installation creates a liminal space between preservation and control, fragment and totality, where memory and body enter into dispute.
Tef Nakielski and Felipe García Salazar
Estructuras Discursivas de la Memoria Material, 2025
Mixed media technical installation. Iron structure, concrete, screens, video camera.
fundació úniques
Fundació Úniques is a private entity dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of contemporary art created by women who live and work in the Catalan Countries, especially in the fields of painting and sculpture. It acts through the creation of public exhibition programs, actively promote the involvement of the artistic circuit, and foster equitable collecting.
With the mission of expanding the presence of women artists on the national and international scene, balancing the number of works created by women in collections, and consolidating their professional representation. Their commitment is to support their creators at key moments in their artistic careers.
Fundació Úniques presents the Cartographic Annex by Núria Valsells Niubó, part of the project From Here to There, a reflection on hiking and collective identity using materials such as plaster, shoes, and ashes. Anna Ill presents Bed, Creatura, and Umbilical I, three works that explore shelter, vulnerability, and resilience through the body and the home. The artist is participating alongside Mariona Berenguer and Julia Aurora Guzmán in the exhibition A Weave and Other Structures, on view at Fundació Úniques until October 4, 2025.
Núria Valsells Niubó
Annex Cartogràfic, 2025
Chalk, paper, cloth, rope, and ash
20 x 45 x 380 cm, modular
Anna Ill
Umbilical I, 2025
125x31x21 cm
Iron and cotton thread
Anna Ill
Bed, 2025
Iron, dresses and thread
150 x 190 x 23 cm
Anna Ill
Creatura, 2025
Iron, dresses and thread
150 x 190 x 23 cm
Piramidón
Piramidón, Contemporary Art Center (Barcelona), founded in 1990, is a hybrid space between gallery and creation factory that integrates artistic production with its dissemination, exhibition, and commercialization. With 18 studios that have hosted more than 200 artists from 30 nationalities, Piramidón provides an ideal environment for the development of artistic practice, fostering interactions between creators, curators, collectors, and contemporary art professionals. It also annually awards several acquisition and residency prizes, both its own and those linked to international fairs, with the aim of supporting emerging and mid-career artists.
For this edition of SWAB, Piramidón presents Stratification and Landscape (2025) by Marco Noris, resident at the center since 2017. This project brings together several works created over the last seven years, all sharing a common focus on exploring the representation of landscape. As a whole, the works question the subjective gaze of the landscape, shifting from traditional horizontality to a verticality that offers an external and technological perspective —like that of a satellite or drone— which displaces the human presence within the territory. The different layers of the pieces allude to the stratification of time and space, serving as a transition between these two perspectives. Noris employs walking as a tool for aesthetic and reflective inquiry, which manifests in his work both visually and conceptually.
Marco Noris
Muntanya, 2018
Oil on cardboard, 45x30x18 cm
Marco Noris
Portable landscapes
Oil on wood, different sizes
Marco Noris
Territori I, 2021
Mixed media on canvas, 170x150 cm
artSingular, Fundació Josep Santacreu
The artSingular platform aims to give visibility to art created in workshops of social organizations where artists with functional diversity work. We identify the best talent, develop projects, and seek spaces to promote their work. Without academicism, without corrections, singular art both complements and contradicts academic art. The artist expresses themselves spontaneously, immersing us in a free world where emotions emerge directly from the creative impulse, unfiltered. It is no coincidence that in singular art we find a common thread: the human condition, difficulties, suffering, spontaneity, fear, obsession, humor, and innocence.
From the Josep Santacreu Foundation, we defend the individuality and uniqueness of each artist and hope they find their place in the art world. The work of Pol Martínez reveals his passion for music. His form of expression is expansive and insistent, to the point of damaging the paper he works on. The artist methodically repairs the work with adhesive tape to feel more at ease with the final result.
