From February 6 to 8, 2026, IAAC – Advanced Architecture Barcelona takes part in Llum BCN 2026 with Underlight, a light installation developed and led by the Master in Design for Emergent Futures in collaboration with Fab Lab Barcelona and ELISAVA.
The project is curated by Mario Santamaría and developed by a group of 25 students, positioning design, technology and urban exploration at the centre of one of Barcelona’s most significant public festivals, held this year in the context of the World Capital of Architecture 2026.
The project
Underlight stages a fictional roadwork site in Poblenou, using the visual language of construction: metal structures, safety barriers, cables, screens and industrial lighting. Visitors encounter what appears to be a live underground inspection, transmitted by a small robot exploring the city’s buried infrastructures.
While the robot actually navigates a concealed physical model inside a tent, the installation constructs the illusion of a real-time descent beneath the public space. Through light, movement and carefully choreographed visuals, Underlight transforms maintenance work into spectacle, revealing the hidden systems that sustain urban life.
Referencing Poblenou’s industrial past and infrastructures such as the historic Iris power station, the project invites the public to reflect on what lies beneath the city and how urban space is continuously shaped by invisible processes.
About the curator
Mario Santamaría is a Barcelona-based visual artist working across installation, photography, video and performance. In 2018 he founded Internet Tour, a project that operates as a tour operator exploring the physical infrastructures of the internet. His work has been shown internationally at institutions including ZKM Karlsruhe, C/O Berlin, MACBA, Aksioma Ljubljana and Arebyte London. He also teaches at ELISAVA and has been invited to institutions such as UC Berkeley, HSLU Luzern, The New School and Trinity College Dublin.
Underlight is part of Llum BCN 2026 and is open to the public.
Visit the installation in Carrer de Castella, 4.
