The multidisciplinary Indian artist Sejal Parekh (United Kingdom, 1979), based in Barcelona, will present an exhibition of her artistic work at the Palau de la Música Catalana, providing a perspective that deeply dialogues with the central theme of this season: peace. In collaboration with the Fundació Úniques, which supports contemporary art created by women originally from or based in the Catalan Countries, Sejal Parekh will introduce the visiting public to the Palau de la Música Catalana with some of her most representative works: the banners.
The banners are constructed from seemingly simple elements but are loaded with meaning. One of the main materials he works with is khadi, the hand-spun and woven cotton fabric that is part of India’s history and cultural identity. Beyond its texture and fragility, khadi also evokes strong political and social symbolism: it was transformed into an emblem of self-sufficiency and peaceful resistance during the independence movement led by Mahatma Gandhi.
On this living surface, Parekh builds compositions with another everyday element: safety pins, safety pins. This small object, common in the daily life of many Indian women who use it to hold and tie their saris (traditional Indian dresses), becomes in his work a minimal unit of gesture and meaning. Repeated, grouped or stretched on the fabric, the safety pins create delicate shapes that suggest connection, repair and care.
Through this combination of everyday but deeply symbolic materials, the artist traces a visual language that speaks of both fragility and resistance. His pieces evoke the idea that peace is not a distant abstraction, but a collective construction made of the individual union of an anonymous but essential human collective.
Sejal Parekh studied Fine Arts at the Royal College of Art in London and has exhibited her work throughout Europe. She has made interventions at MACBA and in various galleries and spaces in Barcelona.
