Matt Clark, renowned British artist and founder of United Visual Artists (UVA), will deliver ISE 2026’s Creative Keynote, ‘Hidden Order: Building a Performance-led Mapping at Casa Batlló, from Concept to Implementation’ today, 3:30-4:15pm, in Room CC4.1. This inspiring session will offer a rare, behind-the-scenes look at ‘Hidden Order’, the stunning façade mapping commissioned and produced by Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Batlló in collaboration with UVA, which took place January 31 and February 1, just before ISE 2026 kicked-off.
Celebrated for his pioneering work which combines art, technology, and architecture, Clark fuses light, code, sound, and choreography to create stunning artworks at leading cultural institutions and major public venues worldwide.
Bringing his signature ingenuity and bold thinking to the stage, Clark’s keynote is set to challenge audiences to push boundaries and rethink the relationship between art, technology, and the built environment at ISE 2026. It is set to serve as a case study of the Casa Batlló commission, from first impressions and concept through research, prototyping, content systems, technical design, show control, and onsite delivery. Clarke will outline how UVA translates architectural logic into a controllable visual system, collaborating with a diverse team of technical artisans and specialists to carry the work from studio tests to realisation, and demonstrating how constraints ultimately shape the composition.
Hidden Order’ marked the 5th edition of Casa Batlló’s annual mapping, presented free to the people of Barcelona and established as one of the city’s most significant cultural events. It utilised the building as both subject and instrument, with the purpose of taking Gaudí’s radical legacy even further through inspiration and reinterpretation, drawing inspiration from Gaudí’s relationship with geometry and nature. Through light, motion, and sound, the façade was deconstructed and recomposed, with choreography and human movement serving as integral compositional elements. The work navigated the boundaries between figuration and abstraction, and between the human and the architecture, whilst responding to real-world constraints that shape both its visual language and technical design.
‘Hidden Order’ extended into Casa Batlló’s newly opened second-floor gallery, evolving into ‘Beyond the Façade’, a five-month site-specific exhibition that opened on January 31. This unique space within the iconic building provides an opportunity to explore the artistic process behind the mapping in depth, combining light, motion, and technology t
o reflect on the cycles of life and the interplay between human presence and architecture, allowing visitors to see themselves reflected in the work.
Mike Blackman, managing director of Integrated Systems Events, said: “We are delighted to welcome Matt Clark as our Creative Keynote for ISE 2026. Matt’s visionary approach and his ability to blend art, technology, and human experience truly embody the spirit of ‘Push Beyond’, our theme for ISE 2026. This extraordinary project, created by Casa Batlló in collaboration with Matt Clark, challenges us to see the world differently and inspires our community to explore new creative frontiers.”
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