In 2010 Laia Estruch spent some time in New York studying Visual Arts at the Cooper Union. One day, shortly before starting classes at the university, she went into a bookshop in Brooklyn, chose a book from the shelves that had caught her eye, and when she was about to pay for it the bookseller gave it to her. It was the book Trebisonda or Sonia Balassanian in the Time of the Foxes by the New York based Iranian artist and writer Rene Gabri. Estruch decided to used the book as the starting point of the project that she had to do at university. Later on, after she had completed and presented her project which she called The Lecture, by chance she happened to meet Rene Gabri, the book’s author, who described this meeting between her and Estruch as “serendipity”, a word that describes when a fortunate event or discovery takes place by accident, chance or coincidence.

Produced by: Sala d’Art Jove de Barcelona
Graphic design: Ariadna Serrahima
Photography: Carla Tramullas
Curated by Alexandra Laudo (Heroínas de la cultura), Azotea (Ane Aguirre and Juan Canela), Julieta Dentone