DE PASO Y PAUSA. FOR STARTER PROYECTOS CULTURALES

During the last week of April I had the opportunity to go out of Madrid for the first time to paint since the pandemic locked us up. Nothing better than Burgos to start over. More specifically, I traveled to the small town of Agés, a village at the east of Burgos through which the Camino de Santiago runs.
At another time, more than 200 pilgrims would pass by there every day, but currently only one or two are seen each day.

Estela and Regue (Starter Proyectos Culturales) offered me the possibility of painting on the façade of one of the town's hostels. A red façade, with exposed wooden beams and a lot of personality. It is a house located on the main avenue of the town and my work had to absolutely respect the environment, this was key in the project.

I used, as I have been doing for a long time, a migratory bird like the Gray Heron to talk about movement and pause during our travels. This was the result:

Sometimes we march by choice and sometimes by obligation. Sometimes knowing the destination and sometimes not. Gray herons, flying in groups, cross Europe from south to north with the rise in temperatures, looking for less hostile places for life. Burgos and the Castilian lands thus become an area of ​​passage and pause, to regain strength and then continue. A place shared between those who are and those who pass, between inhabitants and pilgrims, between architecture and painting.

I also made this limited series of sheets, printed in ink on 300g watercolor paper.

Thank you Starter Proyectos Culturales and the people of Agés. They were very special days. I hope that their pilgrims' shelters will soon be filled and they will be able to share, step and pause.

"RENACER/REBORN”. EDIFICIO ESPAÑA, MADRID

Last December I had the opportunity to participate in the Renacer project, together with artists such as Suso33, Pichiavo, Hyperstudio, Lola Zoido or Alfar8 an curated by White Lab Madrid.
An artistic exhibition that brings together various urban and digital artists to exhibit our work on the ground floor of the Edificio España, in Madrid, an emblematic building in the capital.

The project is titled Renacer: “To be born again” after a real or apparent death. The pandemic has called into question the conventional exhibition media and this was my piece.
We imagine this exhibition as a “monument / stage” where past, present and future coexist in the collective memory, breaking the physical margins of the city. It can be visited at any time of day since it is located at street level and remains illuminated at night.

My proposal is titled "Follow", a 4 x 3 m acrylic on canvas:

SEGUIR

Salir de esta, salir a flote o salir corriendo.

El clima, el deshielo, una pandemia, la economía.

​No vernos, no tocarnos, no sentirnos.

​Todo aprieta y casi ahoga.

Las dudas y la incertidumbre también aprietan.

​¿Y la culpa? Nuestra.​

Como la esperanza.

It's great to have the opportunity to show my work again in Madrid, my city, and for the whole public.

The exhibited works can be visited until the end of March.
Thanks to White Lab Madrid for trusting in my work.

VOLVEREMOS A ABRAZARNOS. GRAN VÍA, MADRID

¿Volveremos a abrazarnos? By Zalando.

Yes, we will hug again.
Those who know me know that I'm not a fan of crowds. It has been a year since social distance gave us the opportunity to recover that space (physical and temporary) that day to day had taken from us, especially if we live in large cities where nothing waits, but it also took away many other things that later or sooner they will return.

Last November I hung myself from a building measuring more than 30 meters, on Madrid's Gran Vía, to do this intervention for Zalando's latest advertising campaign. It was an incredible opportunity in a shitty year and I am so grateful. The campaign consisted of two parts that I ran for two weeks. During the first days you could read the phrase: Will we hug again? Accompanied by an incomplete hug.

Picture by @jaerto81

Picture by @argz_streetart

Picture by @danihernandez.m

The work remained on display for a week, until I returned to answer the question. And this was the end result, after 4 days hanging.

Picture by @argz_streetart

I wanted to thank everyone who visited Gran Via during those weeks, for the encouragement, the photos and the messages. We will be hugging soon!

I have to thank Soportes y Medianeras for their trust, and Parapentos Verticales for making everything so easy.
It was an incredible experience!

COMES AND GOES, FOR WALLIN_9000 PROJECT.

Last August I had the opportunity to visit Ghent, in Belgium, to make two murals for Wallin_9000 project. The first of them was this.
The mural was made in Nieuw Gent, a district on the outskirts of Ghent.

Pino is a stork that returns to the neighborhood every October to settle for the next few months until the migration season returns. The residents of Nieuw Gent have adopted Pino as their mascot and made him their symbol. Here, families from many countries, religions and races coexist, making this place a meeting and mixing place, a second home for many of them.

Special thanks to Rick Molyneux for the hospitality and the opportunity.
It has been a pleasure.

Pictures by Ahmet Eroglu.

I also visited the Atelier Desmyter printing studio of the master Eryk Desmyter, with whom I carried out this collaboration in his 19th century printing presses. It is a limited series of 30 copies, signed and numbered, made by engraving on wood on cream colored Smili Japon paper with 2 deckled edges. Paper sixe 64 x 48 cm.

DISTRITO VERTICAL, VALLADOLID, SPAIN.

“ The rural exodus and the loss of identity, or how to progress without losing roots. ”

I made this wall in July, during Distrito Vertical Festival, in Valladolid, Spain. More precisely at the neighborhood of España, on the outskirts of the city. It is a humble neighborhood that arose spontaneously and confusingly, made up of immigrants of rural origin who abandoned their work in the fields in search of a better future at the beginning of the 20th century.
Here you can still appreciate his marginal, isolated and suburban character, but humble and grateful.

Miguel Delibes, a Spanish novelist, said that “If the sky in Castilla is high, it is because the peasants will have raised it from looking at it so much”.

Thanks to all who made this possible and for gaving me this opportunity. Was a pleasure!

See you soon,

"INSTINCT" FOR LABEL VALETTE FESTIVAL, FRANCE.

"Instinct" (30 x 18 m)

Go to an indeterminate place, safe, guided by the survival instinct. Living the present is that. Cranes make a migration trip each year, over 4,000 kilometers from North Africa to North Europe (and vice versa) guided solely by their instincts, to find less hostile, more friendly lands, where to spend the summer and breeding season.

At @labelvalettefestival they live in the present and that was his motto this year: "Demain c'est loin".
12 days of artistic residency in Pressigny-le le Pains, a rural area in the south of Paris where I have shared my time with incredible people, who despite everything, continue betting on art and culture outside also hostile areas and in difficult times.

We also made this limited edition digital print (A3 size) that is already sold!

Thanks to all of you with whom I spent my time there, painting and sharing.
Special thanks to Sebastien, Remi, Mathieu, Olive for all what you did and to all the artist who I met.
See you soon :)


Pictures by Fabe Collage