< Projects
Ignasi Aballí
Monochrome Flags
Sep 1, 2023 - Sep 1, 2025
The Monochrome Flags project takes as its reference the collection of flags from all the countries of the world. The proposal for the flagpole located on the façade of the gallery as an exhibition space, is a reflection that takes into account all the flags of the world, which could also be placed on this same flagpole. The flags mostly contain a composition made up of basic shapes and colors, which makes them similar to abstract paintings.

For this project, the artist inventoried all the national flags currently in use, focusing specifically on the colors represented in each one. Each of the proposed six new flags takes into account the number of times each of the six main colors appears in actual flags.

Their different presences define the size of the new flags and the percentages they appear on them. Thus, the most commonly used color red is represented on a 200 x 300 cm flag with a percentage of 74.2% written on it. This means that the color red appears on 74.2% of the flags. The next most commonly used color, white, is represented on a 289 x 193 cm flag and represents 71.6% of the world's flags.

The flags of the other colors (yellow, green, blue and black, in order of most to least used) also change their size and percentage relative to the red flag.

The project transforms the colors used in the world's flags (usually polychromatic) into six nonexistent flags, exchanging their symbolic content for a color, a size, and a purely statistical fact. A size, a color, and a fact that eliminates the political borders between countries and blends them into new, more abstract flags, freeing them from their symbolic content and our imagination.

The blue flag reflected the gallery's transition to its new identity, which took place in March 2024. Adorning the inscription 50.1%, the blue flag symbolizes the shift from a fraction (50.1%) to wholeness (50.1%).

Just as flags are key identifiers of nations, names are essential markers of identity. By showcasing this project by Ignasi Aballí—who was the first artist to present a solo exhibition at the gallery in 2008—a significant chapter in the gallery's history is brought full circle, emphasizing both continuity and renewal.

The remaining colors used in the flags (orange, violet, brown, etc.) have not been taken into account due to their limited presence in the world's flags. For example, the color orange appears in 5.2% of the flags and its size would be 14 x 21 cm, too small to be placed on the gallery's flagpole.

The black and final flag to be shown in this series was displayed as part of Ignasi Aballí’s latest exhibition, Apparently Empty, which opened mid-May 2025.