GREEN SWARM

Green Swarm, a new exhibition of sculpture, video and photography by Spanish artist Francesca Marti, presents her visual research about the themes of collective behavior and herd mentality. This includes her images of crowds in different cities and her groups of small Believers sculptures representing anonymous commuters and migrants arriving at new destinations. Martí's new show features an installation of a swarm of painted aluminium sculptures of flies, butterflies and dragonflies, a sequence of large colour photographs and a new video projection produced by the artist in collaboration with LADAT (the department of animation and audio-visual technology, established in 1988 in Palma as part of the University of the Balearic Islands). For Marti', the common fly can sometimes be seen as her alter-ego. The fly first appeared as a protagonist in Marti’s works in 1999, leaving a trail of pigment on her human models. Dragonflies and butterflies feature in her later portraits, photographs, performances and videos. But as always, Marti’s various works are inter-connected, both visually and thematically. Her new installation emerges from her studies about how individuals interact. “"The Green Swarm is literally about poetry in motion," says Francesca Martí. "In a swarm, not everyone is a follower. There is usually one leader conducting, the rest are migrating. It’s about the group dynamic. For me, the Green Swarm represents the cycle of life." Originally conceived for the Xiao Hui Wang Art Museum in Shanghai in 2019 and re-elaborated in Mallorca in 2021-2022, the Green Swarm exhibition is curated by Jonathan Turner, with a musical soundtrack by Zack Hemsey. It will be Francesca Martí’s sixth solo show at the Gerhardt Braun Gallery since 2013.