A Souvenir is an object that keeps a memory of a place and an experience. The memories to a place are marked by the scenery, the culture and also by its persons. Cultures and the cities are changing and evolving in time. The image of a city is consequently also submitted to a constant evolution.
Souvenirs of most cities are usually images of clichés that exist as ideas or ideals, but not as part of reality. Many of them are distant symbols to the real experiences in a place.
The souvenir is one of the central topics of the artistic work from Michele Salati. His last work concentrates on the city of Barcelona, whose image has changed a lot in the last years. The processes of the globalization, immigration and massive tourism have been some of the factors that have made change the image of the city in the last two decades.
Michele Salati has chosen the figure of the Pakistani who sells beer as an emblematic figure of Barcelona. With his creation of a monument to the Pakistani, a real size sculpture, on the streets of Barcelona and the corresponding souvenirs, small size copies of the monument, Michele Salati open a dialogue about the life and the integration of certain groups of immigrants in the city of Barcelona and pushes to a reflection on the evolution of the cities and its image change.
Exhibited at: Base Elements Gallery Barcelona 2011