SAFE CREATIVE BECOMES THE PLATFORM THAT SUPPORTS CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS IN FACING DIGITAL CHALLENGES.

Thanks to the collaboration with Safe Creative, we have been able to enjoy the Interviews Program with Marisol Salanova, in which seven artists from Art Madrid'25 have shared reflections and creative processes of their work. The world of contemporary art has undergone significant changes in recent years. Creators now face more challenges than ever, not only when exhibiting their work in galleries and contemporary art fairs, but also in protecting their works and identity in the digital world and against the growing impact of artificial intelligence.

For this reason, Safe Creative positions itself as an essential ally for artists who value the effort behind their work, seek to register their creations to generate solid proof of authorship, and wish to protect their personal brand or that of their works and collections.

Since 2007, Safe Creative has been the world's leading private company in generating digital evidence on the internet. Through its copyright registration service, it offers tools tailored to all types of creators. In recent years, it has evolved into a comprehensive platform that not only helps artists register their finished works but also certifies human contribution in the creative process, automatically informs about reserved rights, and allows for publishing and licensing works. Additionally, it has become a reference for articles, news, and trends on intellectual property. It also simplifies the trademark registration process in various territories, both nationally and internationally, addressing a crucial aspect for contemporary artists.

The goal is clear: to support creators in all aspects related to their copyrights, style, and brand image. From documenting the creation of their works to protecting their artistic name, Safe Creative enables artists to present their identity coherently and professionally, opening up new opportunities.

Beyond personal identity, it is recommended to register the names of specific works, notable projects, or collections involving collaborations with other creators as trademarks. This includes names of fairs or residencies, for example. This type of protection helps prevent others from appropriating the name and reputation of artists, organizations, and works, while facilitating the commercialization, communication, and promotion of creations.

All of this is made possible by Safe Creative's intelligent use of new technologies. Through digital fingerprints, timestamps, and blockchain, the platform generates valid and verifiable evidence in all countries that are signatories to the Berne Convention. These proofs are tamper-proof and enhance the confidence of buyers, gallerists, and creators. The same philosophy of technological efficiency is applied to trademark registration, simplifying a process that was traditionally tedious and complicated.

Additionally, Safe Creative offers a free online exhibition space for its subscribers, which is continually evolving to become a comprehensive solution for those looking to showcase their talent and work. This space allows artists to sell usage licenses comfortably and transparently, and even declare whether they wish to prevent AI companies from using their works to train algorithms.

Safe Creative thus positions itself as a platform that supports the entire journey of any artist, content creator, or company that values their work and wants to showcase their talent to the world in the safest way possible, transcending borders and empowering creativity.

Sponsor of ART MADRID'25

The work of Iyán Castaño (Oviedo, 1996) is situated within a genealogy of contemporary art that interrogates the tension between the ephemeral and the permanent, placing artistic practice on a threshold where nature, time, and perception converge. His research begins with an apparently minor geomorphological phenomenon—the traces left in the sand by the action of the tides—and transforms it into a poetic device for sensitive observation of the landscape. The temporal restriction imposed by low tide functions not only as a technical constraint but also as a conceptual structure that organizes the creative process and aligns it with an ethic of radical attention and presence.

Far from approaching the landscape as a mere backdrop or stage, Castaño recognizes in the maritime environment a generative system that precedes all human intervention. The sea, wind, and light produce autonomous records that he translates pictorially, shifting authorship toward a practice of listening and mediation.

The territory—initially asturian and progressively extended to other geographical contexts—functions as a material archive and situated memory. Each work becomes an unrepeatable index of a specific place and moment, revealing the fragility of natural cycles without resorting to explicit rhetoric of denunciation. In this way, Iyán Castaño’s painting operates as an active pause, a gesture of suspension that allows us to experience the world’s constant transformation from a sensitive and reflective proximity.

Open waters. 14-04-24. Expanded graphic on canvas. 2024. Detail.

In your practice, you work under the time constraint imposed by low tide. How does this temporal limit shape your creative process?

Low tide profoundly conditions my working method, but it does not function merely as a time limit; rather, it is the axis around which the entire project is structured. There is a prior phase in which I study meteorological conditions and the possible climatic variations of a specific day; based on this, I know whether I will be able to work and with which materials.

Once on the beach, during low tide, I have a very limited window—sometimes barely two hours or even less—in which I must move through the space searching for existing traces. If I find one, I intervene in it; if not, I must move on to another beach. After the intervention, I have to remove it quickly before the sea returns and erases every trace. In a way, these works transform the ripples of sand—those forms that are essentially ephemeral—into something permanent.

Where the sea is born. 15-09-25. Expanded graphic on canvas. 40 x 60 cm. Rodiles Beach, Asturias. 2025.

How does the meteorological and maritime environment—the unpredictability of the sea, wind, light, and tide—become a co-author of your pieces?

I do not consider the environment a co-author in the traditional sense, but rather the true author of the traces I work with. I am interested in understanding nature as a great creator: through tides, waves, wind, and light, the sand generates forms that are in constant regeneration. In order to create my works, the sea must first have created its own.

From there, using acrylics, oils, waxes, or sprays, I attempt to translate into the work my sensations and emotions in front of the sea at that specific moment. Whether it is winter or summer, cloudy or sunny, a small cove or an expansive beach, all of these context conditions result and become imprinted in the work.

Sand Ripples. 07-04-21. Expanded graphic on canvas. 189 x 140 cm. Niembro Estuary. Asturias. 2021.

Your work is closely tied to the Asturian territory—beaches, coastal forests, the cove of La Cóndia. What role do place, topography, local identity, and geographic memory play in your practice?

Place is everything in my project. Asturias was the point of departure and the territory where my gaze was formed. I have been working along this line for seven years, and over time I have come to understand that each trace is inseparable from the specific site and the exact day on which it is produced.

From there, I felt the need to expand the map and begin working in other territories. So far, I have developed works in Senegal, Ecuador, the Galápagos Islands, Indonesia, and elsewhere—and in each case, the result is completely different. The sea that bathes those coasts, the arrangement of the rocks, the morphology of the beach, or even the animals that inhabit it generate unique traces, impossible to reproduce elsewhere. This specificity of territory—its topography and geographic memory—is inscribed in each work in a singular, inseparable, and unrepeatable way.

Mangata. 05-11-25. Expanded graphic on canvas. 190 x 130 cm. Sorraos Beach. Llanes. 2025.

To what extent are climate change, rising sea levels, altered tidal cycles, or coastal erosion present—or potentially present—as an underlying reflection in your work?

My work does not originate from an ecological intention or a direct form of protest. If there is a reflection on the environment, it emerges indirectly, by bringing people closer to the landscape, inviting them to observe attentively and to develop a more empathetic relationship with the environment they inhabit. Beaches are in constant transformation, but I do not seek to fix the landscape; rather, I attempt to convey the experience of being in front of it. In this sense, each work is like a small sea that one can take home.

Tree of Life. 19-02-25. Expanded graphic on canvas. 50 x 70 cm. El Puntal Beach. Asturias. 2025.

To what extent do you plan your work, and how much space do you leave for the unexpected—or even for mistakes?

In my work there is very little planning in terms of the final result, but there is a very precise preliminary planning. Before going to the beach, I monitor the time of low tide, wave height, wind, and weather conditions; based on this, I decide which beach to go to. Even so, when I arrive, I still do not know what work I am going to make. It is there that I determine which material to use, which color to apply, and where the intervention will take place. Many times, the environment simply does not allow work on that day, and chance becomes an essential element of these works. Error, in turn, becomes a new possibility if one learns how to work with it.