We just want to set the world on fire

20.07.2021

New series of drawings

Kepa Garraza presents his new series that arose as a consequence of the wave of protests that swept the world after the generalised lifting of restrictions following the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. These protests were widespread and seemingly spontaneous, coinciding with the onset of the summer months. with the onset of the summer months of 2020. From Minneapolis to Johannesburg, Santiago de Chile to Paris, a wave of indignation and anger has spread from indignation and rage has spread unchecked to all corners of the globe. The reasons are easy to understand: the widespread impoverishment of large sections of the world's population of large sectors of the world's population and the ineffectiveness of many governments in meeting their most basic needs, have produced multiple outbursts of violence and indignation across the globe.

"This series comes in the wake of the wave of protests that swept the world after the widespread lifting of restrictions following the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. These protests were widespread and seemingly spontaneous, coinciding with the onset of the summer months, with the onset of the summer months of 2020. From Minneapolis to Johannesburg, Santiago de Chile to Paris, a wave of indignation and anger has spread from indignation and rage has spread unchecked to all corners of the globe. The reasons are easy to understand: the widespread impoverishment of large sections of the world's population of large sectors of the world's population and the ineffectiveness of many governments in meeting their most basic needs, have produced multiple outbursts of violence and indignation across the globe. Taking this new wave of social conflict as a point of reference, I have proposed a series of works that attempt to highlight the turbulence and uncertainty of these times and to offer the uncertainty of these times and offer the viewer a visual testimony of the different protests, riots and revolts that have spread around the world. around the world. The starting point for these works has been a selection of images, taken from the websites of various news agencies, which offer a visual account of the various protests, riots and revolts that have spread around the world. news agencies, which offer a graphic and explicit account of the period of extreme social conflict in which we are living. These images show very common scenarios in the majority of these protests: burning vehicles, police charges, hooded demonstrators, battle scenes hooded demonstrators, urban battle scenes, etc. All of them have served as references for me to make a group of black and white drawings that function as a kind of narrative of the protests. that function as a sort of non-chronological, delocalised account of these conflicts. In these drawings I have eliminated most of the elements that refer to a specific context. elements that refer to a specific context, so that these works function as dislocated representations, scenes that could happen in any corner of the world. could take place in any corner of the planet.

Alongside these works, I have developed another series of drawings depicting scenes very similar to the previous ones. The difference between both groups of works lies in the fact that this second group of drawings is made up of fictitious recreations that I myself have made. I have made myself. Some of them, of a very different nature from the first ones, have an evident air of artifice and staging, composition and lighting that prove that they are indeed recreations. Others, on the other hand, are of a more ambiguous nature and may be taken for real images. and can be taken for real images taken from the mass media. The drawings that make up this second group of works show the viewer a kind of falsified reality. viewer a kind of falsified, ambiguous and undelimited reality, with which I intend to force the viewer to question the nature of all the images that make up the of all the images that make up the project. In essence, this project attempts to reflect on two fundamental questions. The first of these questions has to do with how this growing social conflict is represented within our cultural sphere and how the narrative of this perpetual conflict is evidence of a global society in constant crisis. a global society in constant crisis. A world that since the beginning of the century seems unable to cope with profound political, social, ecological and cultural changes, social, ecological and consumption changes that broad sectors of the population are demanding. The second of the essential issues in this project, has to do with this idea of the construction of the narrative and how the new media have helped to create new structures that encourage the structures that encourage the spread of fake news and the increasingly partial, biased, and emotive chronicling of reality. While the narrative has always depended on the intentions of the one who was telling it, never has the chronicle of the social seemed so fragmented and elusive. and ungraspable. The drawings that make up this project aim to reflect this virtual reality in which we inhabit a large part of our time and where it is increasingly difficult to distinguish reality from fiction".

With this text, Kepa Garraza presents his new series We just want to set the world on fire. A series based on charcoal, as is characteristic of the artist, which serves as a loudspeaker against the effect of the pandemic caused in 2020.