the street is our gallery

On January 13, artists Taquen and Sonja Ben made a new intervention for the 12 + 1 project in Sant Vicenç dels Horts. The artists participated with their works “Hold” and “Castel Mind” respectively in this second round of the project that began the activity of the Urban Contour Foundation this 2020.

Taquen is a young plastic artist and cartoonist, dedicated especially to wall painting for more than 8 years. Born in A Coruña in 1992 but Madrileño for adoption. Graduated in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid. Much of his work revolves around the natural and organic, in the dialectic between these elements and the landscape, that is where it makes sense. Concerned about the social and environmental context, his work has a great sensitive component and is based on his experiences, much of them in the natural environment. He considers urban art as a tool for social transformation and has led several social projects in Nepal. He began as many to paint graffiti when he was just 13 years old and has not abandoned the large format since then, adding new tools and extending his work through national and international territory to places like Nepal, Greece, Germany or Ireland.

Taquen’s work, “Sustain” focuses on giving weight and importance to all our actions, as well as everything that surrounds us, in the words of the artist: “Hold, bear, balance … If our exerted force is superior or lower than what we receive, the environment will be affected, in one way or another. That is why in equilibrium is where I find the best way to integrate ourselves, without shocks, without exaggeration, leaving a camouflaged footprint that will become part of that environment naturally, without destabilizing it.”

Sonja Ben is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in Barcelona. He focuses his work on the construction of a personal plastic language that connects the subconscious with the conscious. It deals with ascetic issues such as that of the inner demons and their acceptance from an ironic perspective. Sonja neglects the representation of the real and reinterprets it using a fun and colorful style. Influenced by the children’s world, symbolism, platform video games, comic and Japanese animated films.

The leitmotif of the play “Castel mind: Battle strategy of archery. Shoot the rainbow man to cross the wall.” It is based on a visual narrative of a strategy of mental self-deception. It is about tricking the mind to get rid of inherited behaviour patterns, which have become obsolete and sabotage us, in order to achieve our personal goals.