Pavel Korbička transforms dance into monumental light sculpture at Al-Tiba9 Gallery during Barcelona Gallery Weekend 2026
Pavel Korbička, Dance Calligraphy, Glass Neon Installation, 1996-2017
Pavel Korbička Dance Calligraphy at Al-Tiba9 Gallery for Barcelona Gallery Weekend 2026
17 September – 14 November 2026
Al-Tiba9 Gallery, Barcelona
Barcelona Gallery Weekend 2026 | Official Programme
This 17th September, as part of Barcelona Gallery Weekend 2026, Al-Tiba9 Gallery presents Pavel Korbička : Dance Calligraphy, the Czech artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery.
Dance Calligraphy brings together monumental light sculptures, site-specific light installations, photography, works on paper and video, presenting a broader view of Korbička’s ongoing investigation into space, movement, light, time and perception.
At the centre of the exhibition is the artist’s Dance Calligraphy series, in which the movement of a dancer is recorded and translated into sculptural structures of light. Three recordings of the same dance sequence, captured at different moments, become a tripartite spatial composition in which movement is transformed into form.
The exhibition, however, extends beyond light and neon. Through photography and works on paper, Korbička explores other stages of the same process: how movement can be observed, recorded, traced and translated into visual form. Video documentation returns the viewer to the bodily action from which the sculptural works originate.
Across these different media, Dance Calligraphy creates a dialogue between the ephemeral and the permanent, the two-dimensional and the spatial, the recorded gesture and its physical trace.
At Al-Tiba9 Gallery, Korbička’s site-specific installations further activate the architecture of the space. The viewer’s own movement becomes part of the experience, as changes in position alter the perception of light, colour, form and spatial relationships.
Dance Calligraphy therefore describes not a single medium, but a process: the transformation of movement into image, line, light, sculpture and space.
Dance Calligraphy is presented as part of the official programme of Barcelona Gallery Weekend 2026.
Pavel Korbička, Dance Calligraphy, Glass Neon Installation, 1996-2017
Pavel Korbička, TP serie 01-06-15s, 1996
Pavel Korbička, TP serie 01-07-10s, 1996
Dance Calligraphy
Exhibition statement
Mohamed Benhadj - Curator
«Dance Calligraphy» by Pavel Korbička is the second solo show at Al-Tiba9 Gallery, presenting an installation of monumental light sculptures resulting from a project that continues the line of his artistic practice, focused on various ways of recording the ephemeral movement of dance. The exhibition is complemented by site-specific light installations that engage the physical experience of space through the perception of light.
The relationship between space and time, considered one of the key themes of visual art since at least the avant-garde movements, has long been at the core of Pavel Korbička’s interests. The traditional starting point for presenting the temporal dimension in an artwork is real human movement. Korbička’s tripartite light sculpture is based on three chronologically (and therefore physically) distinct recordings of the same dance sequence, captured through reflective markers placed on the dancer’s body. The exhibition includes neon installations, photography, works on paper, and video documentation of performances.
Pavel Korbička
Visual and Neon Artist
Pavel Korbička exploits each creative impulse down to the minutest detail and is able to bring his message across with the use of the most economical devices, his idiom conveying an experience of great intensity. He works with space, light, and color, employing various combinations of new and classical technologies.
Korbička manages to conjure up a state of suspense between objects and installations. Whether he displays them indoors or outdoors is of no relevance. While his sculptures may superficially appear static, they actually attest to a great deal of importance assigned by the artist to the element of motion. Motion, that is, does not involve the objects themselves but rather concerns the viewers circling or entering them. With every new step, correlations between light and color transform. Thus, the artist’s message acquires new dynamism, as the viewers perceive the composition as a whole in a different and sometimes quite unexpected way with each change of perspective or color.
Al-Tiba9 Gallery
Al-Tiba9 was founded in 2013 by curator Mohamed Benhadj to address contemporary art, performance, and fashion design, and it announced the opening of its art gallery in the historic center of Barcelona on the occasion of its 10th anniversary. The Born neighborhood hosts Al-Tiba9's main headquarters, including a print art magazine focusing on contemporary international artists who engender new visions about possible futures. Mohamed Benhadj's gallery, which operates under Al-Tiba9 Contemporary, is the first international art gallery founded by an Algerian curator in Barcelona.
The space was built by José Fontseré Mestre, a figure of the Catalan modernism, and has 300 m2. Likewise, it is located five minutes from the Picasso Museum, Moco Museum, MEAM European Museum of Modern Art, and El Born CCM. The gallery seeks to be a bridge between the MENA region and Europe, a solid link between the East and the West by offering the world a unique experience of creativity, possibility, and growth like no other around the globe.
