Sergi Cadenas, urban forging craftsman and successful kinetic art painter

Girona"Forging exists, it is a living trade, that is why I do not ask for support or subsidies, since we have been doing the same thing for 175 years," says Sergi Cadenas, fifth generation of a family dedicated to artistic forging in Girona since the mid-nineteenth century. His unique premises, Ferros de Arte Cadenas, crosses a block and connects Calle Nou (shop) with Calle Sant Francesc (forging). An activity that is a priori noisy and dirty but survives in the city centre. "I have filters above the regulations and the hammer mounted on a silencing block. I could start chopping from 8 in the morning, but I don't because I am aware that I am in the middle of a city. I have never received any complaints from the neighbours."

Forging runs through his veins due to the inheritance of the two great families of forgers in Girona, the Cadenas and the Quintanas. And the lineage will continue, because a 23-year-old daughter ensures continuity. "Nonito Cadenas, my great-great-grandfather, was more famous because he worked for the architect Rafael Masó." The Quintanas worked for stately homes and public bodies: the doors of Girona City Hall are theirs. "The grandfather was the disinherited son of the Cadenas forges and the grandmother, the heiress of the Quintana forges. The two great competitors of the city came together thanks to this marriage, which I sense must have been very convenient."

Cadenas does not work for administrations because he does not like bidding where the lowest bid always wins. As always, they make decoration materials, interiors, railings, doors, handrails, but with great attention to design. "For a time, plastic crushed everything. Forging became synonymous with rustic: farmhouses or farm tools. Our vision was to restore its prestige."

A painting studio in the attic

"Most of my ancestors must have been better craftsmen than me, but there are no artists," says Cadenas, who has a parallel occupation (with a studio in the loft of the forge) as an internationally sought-after artist of figurative kinetic art, with work in prominent galleries (Jordi Barnadas in Barcelona). He began painting in oil on iron, but now does so on canvas. "Forging fulfilled me and took me away from art, until at the age of 30 my wife gave me a paint box." This year he will have an exhibition in Singapore and another at CaixaForum Barcelona.

He knows that the art world is volatile and enjoys the moment. "I have also gone up and down with a painting under my arm. Two important galleries in Barcelona did not want to even look at it, and two or three years later they came looking for me to exhibit. If I have not done it it is because I do not have enough work, not out of resentment. I have never reproached them, the system works like that."

Asian success: from Elon Musk to Steve Jobs

She believes she was lucky enough to create a technique and a subject that made an impact. In her paintings, for example, a girl turns into an old woman, or a young woman into a skull, when the viewer moves around. "I've painted many, but I'm still not tired of it." These transformations are a hit on Instagram and her best-seller in Asian galleries is the face of Elon Musk that turns into Steve Jobs. "They love this! I'm already bored of painting that one. I've done it maybe 7 or 8 times." Cadenas has a limited production of about 14 or 15 paintings a year, since her technique is very laborious. "They sell for more than 30,000 euros, but the gallery keeps half of that and the Treasury half of my half. My luck is that I have ideas and the skill in my hands to execute them."