Contact:
mail (at) serafinalvarez (dot) net
About:
I am Serafín Álvarez, an artist, researcher, and professor based in Barcelona.
My work explores how we relate to the unknown—specifically, how we examine it through scientific inquiry and represent it through speculative fiction. I collect, organise, and weave associations between images to envision worlds, which I then construct using video game technology, allowing these digital environments to take on a life of their own.
I have exhibited at venues including Asakusa (Tokyo), CA2M (Móstoles), CAC (Vilnius), La Casa Encendida (Madrid), CentroCentro (Madrid), Fundació Joan Miró (Barcelona), MACBA (Barcelona), MUSAC (León), La Panera (Lleida), Sónar (Barcelona), and Trafó (Budapest), among others. My work is held in public and private collections such as MACBA, Fundación Montemadrid/La Casa Encendida, and BMW Group.
Alongside my artistic practice, I teach at BAU College of Arts & Design of Barcelona, where I am Head of the Department of Languages, Techniques, and Technologies. I also co-founded Club de videojocs, an informal group dedicated to discussing video game culture; directed Gravitacions, an art education project at Fundació Joan Miró's Espai 13; curated Ona, an art education project at Sant Andreu Contemporani; co-directed Sons de Barcelona, a sound pedagogy initiative linked to the Music Technology Group at Pompeu Fabra University; contributed to Sampler Sèries at L'Auditori de Barcelona, where I occasionally wrote programme notes; and co-curated The Way Things Do, an exhibition at the Fundació Joan Miró marking the 30th anniversary of Peter Fischli & David Weiss's filmThe Way Things Go.
I hold a PhD in Design and Communication from BAU–UVic, as well as a BA in Fine Arts and an MA in Artistic Productions and Research from the Universitat de Barcelona.
Selected press and texts: