Anyplace is an audiovisual piece by Noha Mokhtar, Júlia Nueno Guitart, and Xavier Nueno Guitart specially conceived for this exhibition. The project is an investigation of the processes of standardisation of domestic and urban construction in Barcelona. As in other cities in the global north, the reorganisation of spaces and the management of the massive flow of people by digital platforms, points to the existence of a digital infrastructure that at the same time projects its own image onto the city. The work is presented in the form of a video installation that pays attention to the work processes that sustain the mechanisms of reproduction of places and objects resulting from the encounter between mass tourism and digital economies at local and global scales.

This project is part of the Matadero Curatorial Residency - Loop 2022, with the participation of the curator Gema Darbo and the elaboration of this collective piece for the exhibition.

Photo: The Artists.

Authors: Noha Mokhtar + Júlia Nueno Guitart + Xavier Nueno Guitart

Noha Mokhtar (Geneva, 1987) is a Swiss visual artist and anthropologist. She studied Photography at the École Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne and Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Bern. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Social Anthropology and Critical Media Practice at Harvard University, where she focuses on the relationship between kinship, space and materiality in contemporary Egypt. Her artistic practice includes photography, sculpture, installation and video, and uses ethnographic research methods. Her work has been exhibited at Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich; Centre d'Art Contemporain, Geneva; Townhouse Gallery, Cairo; Swiss Institute, Rome and Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne among others. He has received several grants and awards, including: Werkbeitrag Kanton Zurich (2021; 2018), Kiefer Hablitzel (2017), a Fulbright Scholarship (2016) and the Swiss Design Award from the Swiss Federal Office of Culture (2012). She has also received artist and research residencies in New York City, Cairo and Beirut. She is co-founder of the publishing house Edition Hors-Sujet.

Júlia Nueno Guitart (Barcelona, 1994) is an engineer (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) and researcher. She works at the intersection between technology, data and community. She is currently doing a Masters in Research Architecture (Goldsmiths, UK) researching algorithmic management and the (re)proposition of data as a means of organising platform workers. She collaborates with the NGO Airwars (UK) as a researcher in conflict monitoring. In 2021 she published the project A Real-Time Structure funded by a Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative grant. In 2022 she turned this project into an augmented reality Landlord Open House for the Model Architectures Festival. He received the Latin American Green Award (2018), has won a grant in the call for Research and Innovation in the field of thought of the Generalitat de Catalunya (2022), Impulsem el que fas (2020) and the second prize in the Barcelona Super-Islands competition (2021). He has been spokesperson for the Sindicat de Llogateres de Catalunya and has produced the documentary Sindicat for The Guardian (2021).

Xavier Nueno Guitart (Barcelona, 1990) is a researcher. He is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Art, Film and Visual Studies at Harvard University. He is also a Scientific Assistant at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. His research investigates the forms of organisation of knowledge in digital economies, in particular, he is writing a thesis on the social and intellectual history of research engines. He is co-author of Napa(s). Persistir en lo inacabado (Ediciones La Bahía, 2018) and Chaque Mercredi Caracas (Editions HS, 2020). His most recent projects include the audiovisual Cómo Miramos (Museu dels Premis Nobel, Sweden 2021) and the exhibition De la Soledad a la Desolación (Orleans Architecture Biennial 2020). His research has received grants from Obra Social La Caixa (2012-2014), the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts (2019) and the Film Study Center at Harvard University, among others, and has been shown in museums and exhibition spaces in several countries.

Collaboration: Ramon Sanabria

Production: Bilel Dhouioui, Mounira Mokhtar.

Acknowledgments: Mercat de la Boqueria, Fruites Vidal i Pons, Crü Estudio, Triflex, Bel Produccions, Andrea, Belicious, Dolors, Fran, Joan, Lola, Niko, Xavier.