Sala Nueve Open today 10.00 – 18.00

Sala Nueve presents a retrospective

The Patient Screen

Elena Roca · Works 2019 – 2026 · Room IX

Six works of interaction design, hung and lit like the paintings they secretly wanted to be. Seven years of screens that ask for your attention politely — and give it back when you leave.

Begin the visit See the gallery map
Wall text — Room IX

Curator’s Note

Elena Roca builds software the way conservators clean paintings: slowly, in good light, convinced that what is already there deserves to be seen. This retrospective gathers six works made between 2019 and 2026 — a bank ledger, a rainfall archive, an editor for many hands, a night transit map, a private journal, and finally the identity of this gallery itself.

Hang them side by side and a habit appears. Every piece removes something: an alert, a step, a decoration that had stopped earning its place. What remains is the patient screen — an interface that waits for you, rather than the other way around.

Marta Ibáñez Chief Curator, Sala Nueve
6Works on view
7Years covered
47 minAudio guide
The collection — in visiting order

Works on View

Six pieces, hung at the heights the curator argued for. Press the numbered brass disc beside any work to read its audio-guide entry.

nine numbers were enough

No. 01 — North wall

Ledger in Repose · 2019

React, D3, one very calm database

6 screens — 14 weeks

On loan from a quieter bank

Audio guide
Stop 01 · 6 min
Commissioned by a retail bank that wanted its dashboard to stop shouting. Roca removed forty-one numbers and kept nine. Account holders reported checking their balance less often — and worrying about it less, too. The bank first called this a failure of engagement. The bank was wrong.
thirty years of rain, read downward

No. 02 — North wall

The Weather Underneath · 2020

SVG, canvas, thirty years of rainfall records

1 long scroll — 9 weeks

On loan from the Institut de la Pluja

Audio guide
Stop 02 · 7 min
A climate archive built for a Catalan research institute. The interface scrolls downward through three decades of rainfall like sediment — the deeper you go, the older the water. Note the restraint of the palette. The data is alarming enough.
everyone is here; only the text is loud

No. 03 — North wall

Choir · 2021

CRDTs, WebSockets, patience

3 screens — 22 weeks

Private collection, forty-two co-authors

Audio guide
Stop 03 · 8 min
A writing tool for many hands at once. Most collaborative editors show you everyone; Choir shows you the text. Collaborators appear only at the margins, as small coloured breaths. Twenty-two weeks of work, most of them spent deleting features.
the 03:40 exists, we checked

No. 04 — East wall

Night Fares · 2023

React Native, transit feeds, sodium light

4 screens — 12 weeks

Collection of the night shift

Audio guide
Stop 04 · 6 min
A transit app for the hours when buses are rumours. Designed dark not as a theme but as a courtesy — the piece was tested exclusively between midnight and five in the morning. The route lines are hand-weighted for tired eyes.
one cell, one day written the empty cells are not a bug

No. 05 — East wall

Archive of Small Hours · 2024

Local-first storage, no cloud, no feed

2 screens — 16 weeks

Collection of the artist, synced to nothing

Audio guide
Stop 05 · 9 min
A journal that syncs to nothing and notifies no one. Each day is one cell; a filled cell is a day written. Visitors often ask what happens to the empty cells. Nothing happens. That is the feature.
IX the résumé builds its own museum

No. 06 — South wall

Room Nine · 2026

Type, brass, this very website

9 rooms — ongoing

Permanent collection, Sala Nueve

Audio guide
Stop 06 · 11 min
The final work is the room around you. Roca designed the identity of Sala Nueve — the plaques, the vinyl lettering, the site you are reading now. A portfolio that ends by building its own museum: the retrospective becomes the résumé.
Orientation — East wing

Gallery Map

Room IX, second floor. Tap a numbered marker — or a title in the legend — to walk straight to the piece.

BENCH Room IX EAST WING · SECOND FLOOR N 1 2 3 4 5 6 YOU ARE HERE
  1. 1Ledger in ReposeNorth wall
  2. 2The Weather UnderneathNorth wall
  3. 3ChoirNorth wall
  4. 4Night FaresEast wall
  5. 5Archive of Small HoursEast wall
  6. 6Room NineSouth wall
Visitor book — Pages 214 – 215

What the Visitors Wrote

Came for the free entry, stayed forty minutes in front of a bank dashboard. I don’t even use that bank.

Núria F. — 14 June 2026

The night transit piece made me miss my actual bus. Worth it.

Tomás R. — 29 June 2026

Finally, software hung at eye level, where you can look it in the eye.

A conservator, passing through — 3 July 2026

Sign the visitor book

Entries appear on the page opposite. Pencil is provided; opinions are your own.

Plan a visit — Admission free

Sala Nueve

The gallery is small, the stairs are honest, and nobody will hurry you. Commissions are discussed on the bench, by appointment.

Hours

Tuesday – Sunday 10.00 – 18.00

Mondays closed

Last entry 17.30. The lights dim at 17.55, gently.

Admission

Free, always. The audio guide is included — it is the brass discs you have been pressing.

Private viewings and new commissions by appointment: studio@salanueve.example

Find us

Carrer de l’Om 9, El Raval, Barcelona

Second floor, east wing.

No lift, good stairs, better banisters.