Catalogue_1001_Windows_v1

Barcelona: 1001 Windows 16 – 22 September 2026Barcelona: 1001 Windows 16 – 22 September 2026This catalogue is published on the occasion of the exhibition presented by RFA Projects at the Museu Europeu d’Art Modern (MEAM), Barcelona, Spain. Exhibition dates: 16–22 September 2026 Published by: RFA Projects Berlin, Germany Copyright © 2026 RFA Projects and the respective artists, authors, and rights holders. All rights reserved. Cover photo: Casa Batlló, Barcelona, Spain. Courtesy of JJxFile © All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, distributed, or otherwise used in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations used for review, scholarly, or educational purposes as permitted by copyright law. Texts, images, and artworks remain the property of their respective copyright holders. Catalogue design and production: RFA Projects, Printed in Spain.Barcelona: 1001 Windows 16 – 22 September 2026 presented by RFA Projects at MEAM Barcelona Museu Europeu d’Art ModernBarcelona: 1001 Windows brings together contemporary artists in a collective exploration of perception, perspective, and the many ways we encounter the world. Conceived as both a physical and symbolic framework, the exhibition considers the window not merely as an architectural element, but as a threshold — a point of connection between interior and exterior, self and society, memory and possibility. Throughout history, windows have shaped how we see and understand our surroundings. They frame landscapes, reveal hidden perspectives, and invite moments of reflection. In contemporary life, they also serve as metaphors for exchange, observation, and imagination. The artists gathered in this exhibition engage with these ideas through diverse practices — painting, sculpture, photography, installation, and mixed media — each offering a distinct view into the realities, questions, and aspirations of our time. Rather than presenting a singular narrative, Barcelona: 1001 Windows unfolds as a constellation of viewpoints. Some works examine the visible and invisible structures that shape everyday experience; others explore personal histories, cultural identities, and emotional landscapes. Together, they reveal windows not only as openings in physical space, but as openings within the architectures of memory, imagination, identity, and thought. Curatorial Statement The window emerges as an active space of encounter — a place where boundaries dissolve and new understandings emerge. Presented at the Museu Europeu d’Art Modern (MEAM) in Barcelona, within the framework of the city’s designation as World Capital of Architecture 2026 (UNESCO), the exhibition enters into dialogue with a place long shaped by innovation, cultural exchange, and creative vision. Situated in the historic district of El Born, the museum provides a setting where contemporary artistic voices engage with broader questions of heritage, transformation, perception, and the ways we imagine the future. Ultimately, Barcelona: 1001 Windows is an invitation to look again. It proposes that every window offers more than a view: it offers a perspective, a possibility, a way of understanding our relationship to the world and to one another. Across multiple geographies and artistic approaches, the exhibition opens a shared space for observation, curiosity, and discovery — a thousand and one windows through which new horizons may appear. 06 BARCELONA: 1001 WINDOWS Barcelona: 1001 Windows reúne a artistas contemporáneos en una exploración colectiva de la percepción, la perspectiva y las múltiples formas en que nos relacionamos con el mundo. Concebida como un marco tanto físico como simbólico, la exposición considera la ventana no simplemente como un elemento arquitectónico, sino como un umbral: un punto de conexión entre interior y exterior, entre el individuo y la sociedad, entre la memoria y la posibilidad. A lo largo de la historia, las ventanas han condicionado nuestra manera de ver y comprender el entorno. Enmarcan paisajes, revelan perspectivas ocultas e invitan a momentos de reflexión. En la vida contemporánea, también funcionan como metáforas del intercambio, la observación y la imaginación. Los artistas reunidos en esta exposición abordan estas ideas a través de prácticas diversas —pintura, escultura, fotografía, instalación y técnicas mixtas—, ofreciendo cada uno una mirada singular sobre las realidades, preguntas y aspiraciones de nuestro tiempo. En lugar de presentar una narrativa única, Barcelona: 1001 Windows se despliega como una constelación de puntos de vista. Algunas obras examinan las estructuras visibles e invisibles que configuran la experiencia cotidiana; otras exploran historias personales, identidades culturales y paisajes emocionales. En conjunto, revelan las ventanas no solo como aperturas en el espacio físico, sino también como aperturas dentro de las arquitecturas de la memoria, la imaginación, la identidad y el pensamiento. La ventana emerge así como un espacio activo de encuentro: un lugar donde las fronteras se disuelven y surgen nuevas formas de comprensión. Presentada en el Museu Europeu d’Art Modern (MEAM) de Barcelona, en el marco de la designación de la ciudad como Capital Mundial de la Arquitectura 2026 (UNESCO), la exposición establece un diálogo con un lugar cuya identidad ha estado históricamente marcada por la innovación, el intercambio cultural y la visión creativa. Situado en el histórico barrio de El Born, el museo ofrece un contexto en el que las voces artísticas contemporáneas entran en relación con cuestiones más amplias de patrimonio, transformación, percepción y las formas en que imaginamos el futuro. En última instancia, Barcelona: 1001 Windows es una invitación a volver a mirar. Propone que cada ventana ofrece algo más que una vista: ofrece una perspectiva, una posibilidad, una forma de comprender nuestra relación con el mundo y con los demás. A través de múltiples geografías y aproximaciones artísticas, la exposición abre un espacio compartido para la observación, la curiosidad y el descubrimiento: mil y una ventanas a través de las cuales pueden aparecer nuevos horizontes. BARCELONA: 1001 WINDOWS 07 Borja Pérez Mielgo (Málaga, 1988) is a Spanish figurative painter whose practice explores the continuity of the European painting tradition within contemporary art. Trained at the Florence Academy of Art, following earlier studies in Cardiff and Edinburgh, he developed a rigorous approach to drawing, painting and representation. Deeply informed by the Mediterranean Baroque, particularly Jusepe de Ribera, as well as Caravaggio and Rembrandt, his work combines academic discipline with sustained research into Old Master techniques. As a copyist at the Museo del Prado, he has undertaken direct study of historic paintings, with particular attention to Ribera. His work has also been exhibited at Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, placing him among the few Spanish artists to have presented work in this historic setting. His paintings seek a timeless, humanistic language in which inherited technique becomes a living means of contemporary expression. Baroque Self-Portrait explores self-representation through the visual language of seventeenth-century European painting. Built around a restrained palette, strong chiaroscuro and direct observation, the work draws particularly on the psychological intensity of the Spanish and Neapolitan Baroque. Rather than reconstructing a historical image, the painting uses this inherited language to examine contemporary identity, presence and the continuity of the portrait tradition. @borjamielgo_art BORJA PÉREZ MIELGO Spain 08 BARCELONA: 1001 WINDOWS Baroque Self-Portrait Oil on canvas 50 x 50 cm 2024BARCELONA: 1001 WINDOWS 09 LAVINIA DE ROTHSCHILD USA – Germany Themes of transformation and mortality continue in the Butterflies series, where the butterfly becomes a symbol of beauty, fragility, love, and loss. The recurring image of the black butterfly or moth evokes the paradox of desire—an attraction toward forces that may ultimately consume us. Through these symbolic forms, the work reflects on the fleeting nature of existence and the complexities of emotional attachment. Extending these concerns into literature, the book Timeless Love examines the gradual disappearance of unconditional love in contemporary society, tracing the delicate remnants of connection that persist amid increasing distance and fragmentation. ldrfineart.com Identity, transformation, and human connection form the core of Lavinia de Rothschild’s multi-disciplinary practice, which spans photography, painting, and writing. Responding to what is perceived as a growing absence of depth in contemporary culture, the work invites viewers to confront the tensions between appearance and authenticity. In the Posthuman series, identity emerges as a constructed and performative condition. Created entirely through handcrafted staging and photography, without artificial intelligence or digital manipulation, the works reveal masks, imperfect-ions, and vulnerabilities often concealed beneath contemporary ideals of perfection. Rather than presenting flawless identities, the series embraces instability and imperfection as essential aspects of the human experience. Lullaby With a Bullet Photography 70 x 70 cm 2023II From the Series Porta Sacra Photography 60 x 40 cm 2025 AKU MENDITEGUY Argentina Porta Sacra is a multidisciplinary work that investigates the female body as a territory of memory, transformation, and creation.The artist weaves together performance, self-portraiture, video, poetry, painting, and textile sculpture, exploring skeletal anatomy as a symbol of support, aperture, and rebirth. The central piece is a skirt crafted from hand-molded bones, meticulously assembled onto a tulle armature. The garment is activated through performance: by bearing its internal architecture as an outer vestment, the body embodies a ritualistic gesture of unfolding—a pelvis that evokes the sacred cracking of childbirth as an act of creation and transmission. In parallel, the artist imprints her body onto fabric, guided by a blind and intuitive gesture. These traces—skeletal impressions, sensory maps—posit the flesh as an archive and bones as an ancestral language. Porta Sacra offers a reflection on the female body as a sacred portal, where every vertebra and every trace becomes a threshold between memory and the life that insists on coming into being. akumenditeguy.com 10 BARCELONA: 1001 WINDOWS