Wall Lab La Model 2023
Barcelona
06.10.23
The Wall Lab La Model 2023 was held on the 6th and 7th of October on the walls of Carrer Rosselló with the participation of the urban artists Magia Seoane, Mikhaela Martin, Pixapixa, OWEN. And the winner of this year’s Travel the Wall: Andy Dice Davies, who came all the way from Cheltenham, England.
Wall Lab is an initiative promoted by Wallspot and produced by Rebobinart that took place for the second time on the exterior walls of La Model, the emblematic former prison of Barcelona (C/ Rosselló).
Wall Lab aims to be an initiative with an impact for the city’s resident artists, as it aims to offer spaces in which to execute works, providing spaces where they can develop their artistic projects and gain visibility and, at the same time, contribute to the professionalization of urban art.
With the interventions of these five artists, we look to energize, revitalize, re-signify, and adapt to the new needs of the neighborhood.
Artists and their works
Magia Trece (Rome, 1987) and Antón Seoane (Vigo, 1986), are multidisciplinary artists in Barcelona who meet in 2021 at an event on freedom of expression. For a decade they have formed an artistic team that addresses muralism, illustration and design, creating their own style in posters and protest messages.
The Future is Now is a Cyberpunk work that reflects on the liberation of an ex-convict, fusing elements of vintage posters and comics, in Magia Seoane’s characteristic style.
Mikhaela Martin is an Italian-Brazilian artist and designer who focuses on painting, illustration and branding. In her works, she is interested in exploring the individual unconscious and their internal struggles. Several of his quests, often sparked by the randomness of everyday life, can be seen on large urban murals and venues in Spain, where he currently resides.
Her work in La Model represents freedom, emancipation and dynamism, leading towards a new perspective of space and redefining its history.
Sofía Bianchi or Pixa, is a Chilean muralist and illustrator who lives in Barcelona. Her style is marked by the use of color in large-scale designs representing the embodiment of the feminine essence.
Through her work in Wall Lab, she seeks to capture the idea of how a prison, a confined space where rights and autonomy are restricted, becomes a powerful starting point to explore the limitations imposed on women in a society dominated by patriarchy.
Owen (Barcelona, 1982) is a prominent graffiti artist with a distinctive style characterized by gestural strokes and characters that look like letters in motion. His work has left its mark in cities such as London, Berlin, Amsterdam, New York and Mexico, both in the streets and in galleries. His fresh and unpretentious style defines him as a symbol of freshness and improvisation.
His work in La Model’s walls represents freedom and other feelings found in this place, with bright colors and an imperial eagle that symbolizes wild and untethered nature.
Also known as Dice67, is an artist and the director of the Cheltenham Paint Festival. He has worked for companies such as Sky Arts, Arsenal Football Club and the bands Killing Joke and The Stranglers. The festival he runs is one of the largest in the UK, attended by around 150 artists each year and featuring permanent walls by Beau Stanton, WD Street Art, Snik, My Dog Sighs, Bublegum SR and many others.
His mural in La Model highlights Salvador Puig Antich, the last one executed in the prison, and highlights the connection between the role of a prison with the role of modern social networks that seek to control and monitor. The use of color emphasizes its relevance today. He seeks to express how social networks act as a virtual Panopticon where we are all observers and observed, influencing our behavior.
