Spanish artist, designer, and photographer Octavi Serra, born in 1990, lives in Barcelona. His interventions in urban spaces reflect the irony and frustrations of our time. By placing objects and signs in the cityscape, he creates situations that he captures photographically. He does so with a great sense of humor, but at the same time he poses serious questions about the modern world. Each of his works contains a socio-political message: many things come into play, such as state surveillance, corruption, ecological destruction, working conditions, and consumer behavior.

“They have sold us a base pattern to live in the world, [and] if we do not make an effort to overcome it or change it, it’s easy to end up looking like automata.”

The object interventions in public space are often short-lived, but the ideas and the effect of their implementation live on through the photographs. In this exhibition, Serra presents the site-responsive work Wall Cleaning. He intervenes in the gallery by cleaning the walls of artworks – a humorous form of hacking the exhibition space.

Commissioned work