Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada | Identity – David – Vitoria

Description

Rodriguez-Gerada creates portraits in charcoal of people-until now anonymous-which scale the walls of buildings in our cities in a format that we can begin to describe as gigantic. They are gigantically defying, proud and dignified, more social than political. But let us not be mistaken, the art piece is not the charcoal drawing. The artistic process begins with the search for the city, the building, and most importantly the person to be depicted. This person must have a sense of belonging to the city that hosts the artwork, and must accept being converted into a monumental hero (like those of modernity described and defended by Baudelaire.) Rodriguez-Gerada’s protagonists become Goliaths confronting the powerful King Davids of politics and advertising.

What defines identity, that fragile and inconsistent-but necessary-sensation of being? This search is in fact one of the most arduous tasks in life-especially for an artist, and particularly for Jorge.