There are moments of tension, moments of laughter, moments of reflection. There are also views from airplane windows, hotel rooms, minibuses, and boats. These are the waiting moments before or after a performance, a diary in pictures from the Nach universe. Since 2015, Javier SalaHE has been documenting with his camera the invisible corner, the intimate space around the Alicante rapper and his environment.
The journey produced more than 20,000 images that form a photographic road film. It weaves Nach’s musical and emotional adventure across more than a dozen countries and will be shown publicly for the first time at Espacio Seneca in Alicante, beginning October 4.
Artist and his team
From 2015 onward, the project carried the subtitle Turn waits into opportunities, offering a selection of just over 100 photographs. This is how Alicante-born Javier Sala sees the world; he is responsible for audiovisual montage at concerts and began taking photographs as a hobby to document life around him. Nach is recognized as a musical figure, yet the most compelling images are often those in which he appears surrounded by others and acts as a spectator, a sentiment he shares.
There are moments captured alongside the team, technicians, collaborators, friends, and other artists who accompanied or encountered the rapper during these years of professional activity, though the photos do not focus on concert scenes. There are many people behind Nach, and many personal and emotional facets that are not widely known. These are the behind-the-curtain moments that reveal what happens before a country or city is reached for a performance, and what follows after the show.
Sala also created several audiovisual interventions on the most iconic facades of cities, such as Alicante City Hall or the Central Market. This accumulated experience could have become a book or a blog, but it ultimately became an exhibition.
A new experience
For Ignacio Fornes, known as Nach, this exhibition will be an experience in itself. This will be his first time engaging with a format of this kind, an exhibition about his life, his career, his personal processes, and the behind-the-scenes moments that often pass quickly. Seeing this musical and human journey laid out is a novel experience, and he aims to absorb every moment of it to enjoy the process fully.
He notes that exposing so much of his life can be startling, yet the opportunity to let a large audience see those moments is meaningful. The essence is that this project allows visitors to understand them more deeply as individuals and performers.
In 2017, Mexico City stood out as one of the places where Nach has the strongest following in Latin America, a testament to the international reach of the project and the cultural resonance of his work.
The Cultural Council Member, Nayma Beldjilali, expressed confidence that the exhibition will resonate with the public due to two strong factors: the enduring significance of Nach as a rap figure with a long-standing legacy in the country, and the high quality of the images presented. The expectation is for a very positive reception, especially among fans of Nach’s music.