The International Festival of Sustainable Art of Catalonia celebrated its 25^th edition with a very special program, including pioneers of sustainable contemporary art and leading figures of original urban art, as well as a large selection of emerging artists and projects.

Drap-Art’21 was held from November 18 to December 21, 2021 in various exhibition spaces in emblematic buildings, creating a cultural circuit in the Gothic Quarter, turning it into a meeting point between artists, art lovers and new audiences, and collaborating in the sustainable and intercultural urban transformation of the center of Barcelona.

Drap-Art aims to raise awareness and educate audiences, to promote sustainability through art as well as artists and their creations within this field of contemporary and urban art, architecture, design and crafts.

In times of global crisis like the one happening today it is more important than ever to realize that culture and art are an intrinsic part of ourselves. In times of uncertainty they are great tools for reflection, for the creative analysis of our situation and to find new directions.

Drap-Art has grown and has been enriched by the participation of Fousion Gallery, Reial Cercle Artístic, Villa del Arte Galleries, Centre d’Artesania de Catalunya and Sala Perill, and also the Faculty of Fine Arts from Barcelona University. It is encouraging to see how many artists, collectives and organizers Drap-Art agglutinates around the world, showing a new path.

Action art by Nathalie Rey in the D’Individual al col·lectiu project

Drap-Art’21

PISTOLETTO AND HA SCHULT

IN MEMORIAM

An exhibition in memory recalling the most pictorial work of Rafael Bertolozzi and Bigas Luna, Lesley Yendell and Richard Hambleton aka Shadowman

THREE ARTISTS FROM BAIX GAIÀ

Tightly related among them and with art history, the already historical artists Bigas Luna, Rafael Bartolozzi and Francesco Volsi found at the Baix Gaià the locus amoenus that the Romans discovered centuries ago. The three artists practiced –and Volsi still practices– the Glocal strategy, that goes from global, following international artistic movements such as Arte Povera and Pop Art, to local. Their roots in their territory are essential for these artists, just as the concept of the object trouvée, both values that match perfectly with the philosophy of Drap-Art. The edition of 2021 of the festival featured artworks by these three brilliant, internationally renewed artists.

THE ORIGIN OF SUSTAINABILITY

in urban art and contemporary art and its old masters

In this edition, the selection of artists for the Drap-Art’21 curated exhibition focused on the search for the origin of the concept of sustainability in contemporary and urban art.

For this very special edition, international and specific curators and art critics from innovative or influential contemporary art fields, such as Graffiti and urban art,were invited to co-curate the exhibition at the Reial Cercle Artístic.

Works by international “old masters” of Graffiti and representatives of current urban art, who have developed, due to the cadence and nature of art, the artistic potential of used materials, were presented.

The conceptual reflection of the times on contemporary human development and the reuse of the waste of modern life as a sustainable resource, consciously or unconsciously.

In Europe, Graffiti has started to settle for about 30 years, and its influence on the reuse of materials and its use of urban space does not leave the world of art or its valuation indifferent.

The exhibitions at the Reial Cercle Artistic were curated by Joan Abelló, Tanja Grass, Jasmin Waschl, Robert Kaltenhäuser and Betty Bigas and at Villa del Arte Galleries by Bert van Zetten. The exhibition of the artworks selected from the open call will be located at the Borsí, in the art modality and Artesania de Catalunya showcased design and crafts. La exhibition Drap-Art Islands, a new interchange project with artists from the Balearic Islands was on show at Sala Perill. Furthermore, the curators Savina Tarsitano and Saverio Teruzzi were responsible for the Rebirth Day, co-organized with Cittadellarte – Pistoletto Foundation.

A selection of urban art and installations were presented with old masters such as Richard Hambleton (Shadowman), SheOne and representatives or references of the local and international current scene such as Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada and Alberto de Blobs, among others. In addition, a large selection and installations of contemporary art were presented, including artists such as Juan Carlos Batista, Miquel Aparici, Lukas Ulmi, Gabriel Raventós, Sibylle Jazra, Anton Unai, Edgar Massegú, Mayte Vieta and many more.

25 YEARS DEDICATED TO ART CREATED WITH RECYCLED MATERIALS

How has the movement evolved?
What are the challenges today?

Installation by Carles Gispert at Drap-Art’09

“It seems like yesterday when we set up the 1000 m2 tent in front of the CCCB in 1996, in the open field where the Faculty of Geography and History of the University of Barcelona was later built. More than 100 artists worked non-stop for 24 hours with 100 m3 of garbage that we collected for them, in front of the 10,000 visitors who passed through the event, accompanied by DJs, VJs, performances and spontaneous artistic actions” comments Tanja Grass, founder of the organization.

Since that event, in which a large number of creators from very diverse disciplines met for the first time, from contemporary artists, performers, actors, designers, handcrafters, stylists and amateurs, Drap-Art has fostered and contributed to promoting in Barcelona, a global movement that also includes Art Brut and Folk art and has more and more prominent and world-renowned contemporary representatives, such as El Anatsui or Tim Noble & Sue Webster, among many others.

This movement crosses the borders of art to encompass other fields such as sustainable architecture with representatives like Santiago Cirujeda or sustainable fashion with activists like Vivian Westwood. The common denominator in all of them is to show the invisible, to value what nobody wants, to find treasures in the trash.

This spirit will be reflected in the commemorative book, which will be published in 2023, with a selection of photographs by Consuelo Bautista (Visual Art Award winner of the City of Barcelona 2007), who has documented the festival all these years with her unique view.

Curators

Tanja Grass

Graduated in German, English and Hispanic Philology, certified translator and interpreter. Founder and director of Drap-Art, she has helped spread the global movement of sustainable art created with reused materials. She is a cultural manager and curator of exhibitions.

Betty Bigas

Betty Bigas is a multidisciplinary artist and Catalan art curator, founder of the Roll Up Gallery of Public Works San Francisco, she has organized art exhibitions and events in institutions such as Nightlife LIVE in California Academy of Sciences. She is currently a curator for the online gallery Daylighted and an indepenant art consultant for start-ups like Kreoz for Apple TV.

Jasmin Waschl

Founder and director of Fousion Gallery, specialized in pop and contemporary surrealism and urban art such as abstract graffiti. Jasmin Waschl has training and experience in architecture and interior design, furniture and communication. She is curator and independent art consultant of Drap-Art.

Bert van Zetten

Director and founding partner, together with Marcel and Jutta Huisman, of Villa del Arte Galleries, an initiative that has three galleries in Barcelona and one in Amsterdam.

Savina Tarsitano

Savina Tarsitano is a visual artist, curator, artistic director and co-founder of Espronceda – Institute of Art & Culture, ambassador of the Third Paradise. She has curated several international projects across the world in the last ten years.

Saverio Teruzzi

Coordinator of the Cittadellarte – Pistoletto Foundation of the ambassadors of the Third Paradise all over the world.

Exhibition spaces

Artist Selection

DRAP-ART’21

Installation and Big Format

Jordi Prat Pons
Francisco Pradilla Barrero
Lai Díez Roig (fotografia)
Lucía Rojas Maldonado (audiovisuals)

Escultura

Alejandra Bourda
Mariona Esteba
Noni Font’
Marte Kiessling
Didier Maes
Ignat C. de Michaelis
Mario Molins
Jordi Palli
Núria Pérez

Design and Crafts

Elias Abraham
Queralt Antú Serrano Porredon
Paul Curtis
Alicia Giráldez
Miguel Ángel González
Viola Hoffmann
Alvise Rrizzo & Matilde Cini
Margarita Torrente
Virginia Rondeel
Mario Cesar Rivas Ferretti
Hernan Seco Llamas
Tau Pibernat & Vera Castelijns
Hatice Rana Tarhangil Karadayi
Galina aka Bella
Sandra Velzi
Amadeo Flix Miguel

Performance, Concerts, Workshops, Live art

Laura Bernis
Didier Maes
David, Different Design
Marta Llopart Estrems
Acc Crew
José Luis Rodríguez Espinosaa

Collaborations

COLLABORATION WITH
THE UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA

With the intention of promoting the most emerging art, Drap-Art signed a collaboration agreement with the University of Barcelona in 2016 to include in its festival a special call for students from the Faculty of Fine Arts. This year they will carry out performances, artistic actions and co-creations under the motto of Public vs. Private, Reflections around Space, at Plaza del Rey during the festival, wanting to show how this relationship has changed during the pandemic.

The aim of this collaboration is to facilitate the entry into the world of art for new generations of Catalan artists. The project, tutored by Eulàlia Grau, Toni Asensio, Joan Miquel Porquer, Jasmina Llobet and Anaïs Civit, will also include panels on art and sustainability within the framework of the Research Days on Service-Learning (ApS) and community pedagogy in art.

COLLABORATORS AND PARTNERS

Drap-Art begins a very special collaboration with Tramontana Magazine, a free, high-quality cultural dissemination publication with international distribution by Montana Colors.

This brand specialized in spray paint (also with water-soluble ecological sprays), has been supporting urban art and graffiti since 1994 in Barcelona and around the world. Among their many actions, they offer support to several sustainable urban art projects.