Mercedes Balle

Mercedes Balle will present Concrete Walls at the Centro Cultural de Jesús in Santa Eulària des Riu as part of the OFF Program of CAN Art Fair 2026. Since 2022, this initiative has promoted the work of Balearic artists through exhibitions held across the Pityusic Islands, between Formentera and Ibiza, with the support of Paya Hotels.

Concrete Walls

This site-specific installation explores the dual nature of architecture: its role as a shelter and its capacity to establish boundaries that impose exclusion.

By limiting the space for movement, the installation critiques urbanism as an imposed reality, one in which the built environment dictates who can, and who cannot, circulate. Conceived for the 700 m² portico of the Centro Cultural de Jesús, the work reconfigures the space using scaffolding mesh recovered from local construction sites.

At a moment when Ibiza and the Balearic Islands are facing a critical housing crisis, the installation reflects on the contradictory realities of tourism. Its presence drives economic and urban development that threatens to destroy the very landscape that made the islands desirable in the first place, displacing both the natural environment and the local community in the process.

Balle’s practice, centred on recovering and recontextualising materials from the urban environment, takes on a critical dimension at the Centro Cultural de Jesús, addressing questions of growth and territorial transformation. Her intervention turns waste into a form of language, highlighting the tensions between development, identity and landscape within the local context.

For the fourth consecutive year, Paya Hotels reaffirms its strong commitment to Balearic artistic creation and to strengthening the visibility of the local cultural sector through its support of the OFF CAN 2026 Program. This initiative not only promotes Balearic talent, but also seeks to connect Ibiza and Formentera through contemporary art.