In-dependencias

An investigation of four years and 60,000 km to discover the ‘map’ of the dependencies of European citizens.

Laurence Miller Gallery presents In-dependencias, a solo exhibition of the spanish artist Miguel Ángel García for the first time in the U.S.

The photographs from the series In-dependencias are based on real images taken from culturally symbolic watchtowers in the twenty seven capitals of the European Union.

These architectonic landmarks play a fundamental role in the creation of this project, placing it in the field of collective memory and identitarian symbols. But the thorough investigation and documentation made by Miguel Ángel García during the initial state of this project gives way, at some point, to artistic appropriation. In this phase of visual definition, the intervening the photographs puts into play the contradictions of the independence concept in the socio-political scene in Europe, committed to achieving maximum advantage from the political unity of the different countries of the continent, while at the same time unwilling to give up distinctive cultural identity.

The artist intervenes the photographs using voluntarily limited resources: white and red color, acting in opposite directions.

White solarises the urban view, making the special features disappear, enveloping the buildings in an aura of fantasy. On the other hand, red rescues architectonic and urban infrastructural details such as chimneys, skylights, mansards or parabolic antennas. It’s not irrelevant to emphasize here that, above the sum of individuals, the city is a result of a common effort to jointly satisfy our material and spiritual needs: heat, light, air, communication, protection. The final result intends to elaborate different “maps” as a sort of x-ray of the in-dependences of all the European capitals.

This work is closed with the gradual accumulation of all cities in two synthesized, superimposed images, whose final result is also a part of the series, in which the layers accumulate and confuse and, once again, the idea of the European city as a changing, exciting and dynamic scene, in which there is room for both personal independence and the full inclusion of everyone, emerges.

Opening reception on Thursday May 30, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.