Art and Memory: "Refugees and wars", by Joan Pallarès

Art and Memory: Refugees and Wars, by Joan Pallarès

From June 14, 2025 to January 4, 2026

Joan Pallarès Ferrer (Barcelona, ​​1955). He began drawing in 1980 in Sitges and later studied Art at the EINA school in Barcelona. During a time, expressed in several galleries in the same city as with the example in the D.Barcelona gallery (1989) which inspired me to show my work in Madrid in 1990 with great success. He was a member during the years of the XINA-ART collection in Barcelona in the 2000s and, in 2005, he exhibited at the Jordi Barnadas Art Gallery. In 1983 he was present at the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival, selected for the IV Saló Del Còmic in Barcelona. He was selected in group exhibitions, at Sala Pares and Galería Tache. In 2000, a group exhibition "7 artists from Barcelona" was held in the city of Bobigny (Paris), and in 2004 exhibitions at the Logroño Museum "Octubre tinto". In 2012, he held a solo exhibition called "Projecte Delta Del Llobregat" at the Torre Balcells Art Center. In 2013, they moved to Valladolid, where he was selected for the ACOR Painting Contest. He worked at the Villanueva de la Peña Library (Cantabria), at the Museo de la Piedra de Campaspero and in 2019, at the Torrelobatón Castle.

Far from sticking to traditional painting, Joan Pallarès work has evolved towards more complex and transcendental creations, halfway between assemblage and installation, where disciplines such as painting, photography and sculpture are mixed. However, he has never completely abandoned the pictorial discipline, as reflected in his series of industrial panoramas of the city of Barcelona. Educated at the EINA art and design school, in 1990 he founded, together with the painter Josep Maria Cabané, the Carme 30 drawing and painting school.

I have long felt a deep pain for the refugee drama that is experienced all over the planet and, thanks to my work with drawing and painting, I can sublimate the frustration of not being able to do anything about this suffering; at the same time, it is a task of denunciation, in the face of so much inhumanity. This project is formed by the theme of refugees and wars. The suffering of refugees is inhuman and is affecting millions of people and families all over the world. The Mediterranean Sea has become a sea of ​​death. Specifically in Europe, we are dealing with it without any compassion, aggravating the problem, and, instead of providing solutions, we are creating barriers, walls, camps for thousands of refugees. The mafias take advantage of everyone's defenselessness; they come out of living real hells, wars, pandemics, hunger, diseases and deaths. Those who are lucky enough to enter the continent are segregated, demonized and mostly mistreated. From the issue of refugees, the work on the First and Second World Wars emerged, from which we have not yet closed the wounds or made deep reflections. I believe that this is one of the reasons why we are currently experiencing a planetary crisis and, specifically, the drama of immigration.

Many of the refugees are fleeing wars. By drawing on this drama in a natural way, I began to work on the two European wars, since mass immigrations are, in part, the result of hunger, pandemics, colonialism... and, ultimately, of the lack of humanity.

The material I use to create my images is Siberian charcoal (hard, malleable and greasy, very useful for creating volumes, generating drama and giving strength to the figures). The supports on which I create my work are: cardboard, wood and for collage, newspaper, notes with texts and my signs. I choose these materials because they are fragile, they speak of the impermanence of the human being, wounds, scars and history.

Joan Pallarès Ferrer

More infos at:

Instagram Joan Pallarès