The current exhibition at the CCCB manages to draw a connection between the Sistine Chapel and YouTube. No easy feat, unless you take a moment to contemplate the Sistine Chapel as a gigantic screen. This, after all, is the connective tissue of Pantalla Global (or Global Screen), a look at the power of the screen and its role as one of the main “constituent elements of ultramodern societies”.

The screen has evolved greatly since the first flickering images were projected on a blank canvas more than a century ago. The screen left the cinema and moved into our living rooms and then made the jump to ubiquity. During this expansion, it also radically altered its functions, moving from a source of passive entertainment and artistic expression to a broad range of applications, from news and information to healthcare and surveillance. The screen also shed its passive nature, ushering in an era dominated by tactile and interactive variations.

The exhibition at the CCCB, based on the book Pantalla Global by Gilles Lipovetsky and Jean Serroy, who also curated the show along with Andrés Hispano, is a fascinating look at the evolution of the screen, its role and presence within society, and our changing relationship to it. Pantalla Global considers the screen from multiple angles – history, politics, sports, advertising, excess, surveillance and games – and explores these themes in two parallel exhibitions, one physical, the other virtual.

In keeping with the rise of interactivity, the exhibition also invites users and visitors to participate by submitting their own videos. These videos go on to form part of the actual exhibition, offering a counterpoint to the curatorial discourse, which is articulated on the basis of videos and images created by filmmakers, video artists, documentarians and other image professionals. Pantalla Global offers a broad, multifaceted and fascinating examination of one of the most defining elements of our time.

CCCB, Montalegre 5, 08001 Barcelona (El Raval)

Through May 28, 2012

Admission: 5 EUR

Other exhibitions opening this month:

Nothing Happens Routine

British artist Craig Stewart crafts beautifully detailed drawings, inspired by long walks around Barcelona and comprising “a visual record of the wandering process, conveying sensations such as boredom, curiosity and displacement”.

Miscelanea, Carrer Guardia 10, 08001 Barcelona (El Raval)

Through February 12, 2012 / Free admission

David Hockney: Posters 1964-1986

One of the biggest names in British Pop Art, David Hockney is probably best known to most people as “the swimming pool guy”. Not only did his career cover a far greater range of subject matter, but Hockney was also a prolific poster designer. The Galeria Eude explores this facet of his work.

Galeria Eude, Consell de Cent 278, 08007 Barcelona (Eixample)

Through March, 2012 / Free admission

Image (right): Harlequin, 1980

On-going exhibitions:

The Caixaforum is showing Impressionists: French Masters of the Clark Collection, with works by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas and others, until February 12. The centre is also showing interesting contemporary Turkish art from the collection of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey until March 4.

The Fundació Miró is showing a wonderful and very complete exhibition of Joan Miró's work, The Ladder of Escape, until March 18. The show, organised in collaboration with the Tate Modern in London, is an absolute must for fans of Miró's work.