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Arash Fayez questions inherited imaginaries with the 2026 Antoni Vila Casas Photography Award
'The Incoherence of the Incoherence' reviews the historical representations of the relations between Muslims and Christians in the Iberian Peninsula and explores how otherness is visually constructed.
Arash Fayez has unanimously won the 2026 Antoni Vila Casas Photography Award with The Incoherence of the Incoherence , a project that critically reviews historical representations of relations between Muslims and Christians in the Iberian Peninsula. The proposal uses photography to question inherited cultural imaginaries and analyze how ideas of difference, identity and belonging have been constructed over time.
The jury particularly highlighted the artist's ability to establish a dialogue between historical sources and contemporary situations, as well as his desire to activate new readings of images from the past. Far from proposing a literal reconstruction of history, Fayez keeps open the contradictions of inherited stories and invites the viewer to examine the visual and cultural mechanisms that have contributed to defining the other.
The proposal has been distinguished by its formal and conceptual solidity, practical resolution and development potential over the coming months. The project will be developed over the course of a year with the support of the Vila Casas Foundation and will culminate in an exhibition at the Can Framis Museum in Barcelona in the winter of 2027.
The jury for this edition was made up of curator and art critic Carles Guerra; artist and cultural manager Manel Margalef; photographer Sophie Köhler, winner of the award in 2020; photographer and visual artist Tànit Plana; Montse Viladomiu, vice president of the Vila Casas Foundation and head of the Health Area; Glòria Bosch, historian, art critic and patron of the Foundation, and Bernat Puigdollers, art director of the institution.
In addition to the main prize, the jury awarded two second prizes to Laura van Severen and Gerard Boyer, in recognition of the quality and solidity of their respective proposals.
The announcement of the award coincided with the opening of L'aire que balla a la boca , Sara Bonache's exhibition at the Can Framis Museum . The artist won the Antoni Vila Casas Painting Prize 2025 with the work Nocturnes , and now presents a pictorial investigation into the forms of desire shared between human beings and other species.
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