Malpaís
Malpaís, Barcelona
**Malpaís** *(mal.pəˈis)* **1. n. Geol.** A field of recent lava, characterised by a rugged, barren and arid surface. Also, the lava itself that forms it.
**2. n.** A territory in *Brave New World* by Aldous Huxley. Huxley’s Malpaís is a reservation inhabited by a community living outside the hyper-technological dystopia.
**3. n.** An independent exhibition and artistic production space, founded by artists in 2020 and located between the Marina del Port neighbourhood and the Port of Barcelona. The project’s main axis is an annual public programme comprising exhibitions, events and workshops. Its curatorial line promotes and supports emerging artists while fostering connections between the Spanish and international cultural contexts.
Proposal
Malpaís presents a solo exhibition by painter and muralist Slim Safont. Following an established international career in contemporary muralism, the artist has developed a practice in which documentary photography and painting become inseparable tools. These two disciplines underpin projects deeply rooted in the territories and communities with which he works. From this perspective, Safont understands the mural as a site-specific response to its surrounding context. The body of work presented at SWAB brings this same practice into the exhibition space, shifting its focus from the public realm towards a more intimate territory. While photography has traditionally functioned as a tool for observation and documentation, these new works draw upon his personal visual archive, placing it at the centre of his research. Within this new body of work, the relationship between photography and painting moves beyond a documentary logic to become a space of intervention, where painting acts directly upon the image itself, altering its reading and questioning its status as a document.
Slim Safont
Safont is a visual artist whose practice brings together painting, documentary photography and contemporary muralism. Over the past decade, he has developed public art projects across Europe and beyond, establishing an internationally recognised practice rooted in a close engagement with place, communities and lived experience. Throughout this journey, photography has remained a constant research tool and the foundation of his visual language.
In recent years, the studio has become the primary space through which he has deepened this investigation. Without departing from the methodology that has defined his practice, Safont gradually shifts his focus from the public realm towards a more intimate territory, where personal experience becomes a new field of inquiry. Within this new body of work, the relationship between photography and painting moves beyond a documentary logic to become a space of intervention, where painting acts directly upon the photographic image, altering its reading and questioning its status as a document.
