Valencia
In my work I explore the connections between realism and abstraction. My artistic techniques cover a wide range of both technical and formal possibilities: from large formats of acrylic on canvas, works on paper to hybrid techniques where photography and printed material play a leading role. It is perhaps this 'Pictorial Collage', a hybridized rather than mixed technique that mixes photographic and advertising materials with acrylic paint and Japanese ink where the elements are combined forming extensive narrative series of diverse themes; Aesthetic, ecological, and socio-political aspects question our notions of beauty and make us reflect on global production processes. Currently, my work can be summarized in three main themes: landscapes, the “One Boxe, one Voice” project and dystopias, closely linked to the global pandemic whose end is not yet in sight. The works of the first thematic complex understand the landscape as a poetic metaphor. The landscape series “When the wind blows” shows the beauty and power of nature: a tropical storm bends the palm trees, the majesty of the already inert trees or the bucolic harmony revealed by the view from a lush green of a tower of the disused power lines. Only with the association “climate and climate change” are the traces of dramatic changes, the dynamics of destruction and its consequences revealed in landscapes. While the landscape images can be read as a call to address the issue of climate change, my works in the “One Box, one Voice” series address another pressing issue: poverty and migration as direct consequences of globalization and change. climate. Wooden boxes (Boxes) made from recycled materials, a simple construction with a compartment inside and a handle on top that Ethiopian shoe shiners use to store and transport materials to clean clients' shoes, are the source of inspiration for this project that began in Ethiopia in 2008, a socio-artistic project that offered shoe shiners, mostly young, in Addis Ababa, a new box in exchange for their used boxes. More than 3,500 boxes were exchanged and cataloged and became part of the permanent collection of the Listros gallery in Berlin. A large part of the 3,500 boxes passed through my hands both in the cataloging process and in their subsequent artistic installations throughout Germany. The fascination of these boxes lies in the "human material" that composes them, in the patina of history that makes each one unique and personal. Containers of countless biographies are much more than wood, wire and rubber. In my project "One Box, one Voice" we try to give each of these biographies their own voice. Although the initial inspiration arises in Ethiopia, this cycle of works is geographically and temporally open, since local peculiarities point to a global phenomenon; shoe shine boxes become symbols of migration in the globalized economy and the precariousness of many existences. Dystopia is the third thematic group of my current work. This broad thematic series reflects the experiences of the pandemic, diffuse fears, and confusing reactions. Dystopian collages reflect universal fears: fear of loneliness, of getting lost in the world and of death. Environmental destruction and climate change, poverty and migration, fear and loss of orientation can be read as leitmotiv of my current work, which, however, also aims to convey hope and comfort in its aesthetic sublimation.
