Antoni Abad

ANTONI ABAD (Lleida, 1956)
"Una giornata particolare", 1995.
Photographic print on canvas.
Measurements: 188 x 147.

Coming from a family of artists, Antoni Abad (Lleida, 1956) graduated in Art History at the University of Barcelona in 1979. During the eighties and early nineties he made mobile sculptures with industrial materials (such as foam rubber or Mecalux) accompanied by photographic sequences that reflect on the dynamism of forms and the infinite combinations that derive from them. This is also the origin of the artist's interest in measurements systems. During his stay as artist-in-residence at The Banff Centre for the Arts (Alberta, Canada) between 1993 and 1994, he began to work with video projections that expand in the architectural space. From this period is the piece Últimos deseos (1995) and the trilogy of rats: Errata (1996), Ciencias naturales (1997) and Love Story (1998). In 1996 Roc Parés invites him to participate in the "MACBA online" platform and Abad presents Sisyphus, a video installation that will later be developed into an exclusive version for the web. In 1997 he completed his studies in the European Media Master at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona and from then on he focused all his creative activity on the digital medium, with proposals such as 1.000.000 (1999) or Z (2001-2003), a work that anticipates the use of social networks. Since 2004, Abad experiments with the possibilities of mobile technology, articulating audiovisual communication networks through which he tries to give voice to groups usually ignored or discriminated by the official media. He has presented his projects, among other spaces, at Espacio Uno/Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid (1997), Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (1999), II Bienal Iberoamericana de Lima (1999), New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York (2001), Hamburger Banhof in Berlin (2002), P.S.1 in New York (2003), MACBA (1996, 2003 and 2014) and on his website, megafone.net.