JORDI BERNADÓ. ID PROJECT. Banco Sabadell Art Collection
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A character. A place. One shot. In ID Project, the artist Jordi Bernadó (Lleida, 1966) proposes a series of portraits of people who inspire him and explores the essence of human identity, that which supposedly makes us unique. He picked 14 personalities, world leaders in human rights, feminism, ecology, science, and the arts, for his reflection on identity through portraits. The selection is personal, it responds to the artist's desire to weave a visual dialogue between his gaze and the protagonists.
FOREWORD
On show at MARCO from the 2nd of February, ID project, by Jordi Bernadó, brings together 14 photographs which constitute an approach the portrait genre, focusing on outstanding personalities of the contemporary world, especially well-known for their commitment in different fields of science, art, research, and human rights.
ID Project is an open proposal, premièred at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in the summer of 2022. Since then, it has continued to travel to other venues, thanks to the collaboration of the Banco Sabadell Art Collection, owner of all the works showcased today.
All the participants were asked to select where they would like to be portrayed. It couldn’t be just any place, but their place in the world. That was one of the conditions. The other, that they had their backs to the camera. It is not their face that he captures, but the absence of it. An absent face in a meaningful landscape. Place becomes the only hint the spectators have about the identity of the person in the image.
“We’ve all got a place in the world, a place we love and that we miss, a place to return to. And we all have our own reasons for choosing it. In this case, the meaning of each location is captured in the photograph, but not revealed. A secret between the protagonist and the artist.”
Portraits of:
Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia
Gao Xingjian, Nobel Prize for Literature
Rosario Quispe, indigenous community leader
Nada Al-Ahdal, human rights activist
Gretchen Cara Daily, biologist
Stephen Hawking, cientist
Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize
Steven Pinker, cognitive psychologist
Vivian Gornick, writer
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, writer
Ferran Adrià, chef
Pedro Opeka, missionary
Woody Allen, film director
Reed Brody, lawyer
GENERAL INFORMATION / ACTIVITIES
School Programmes
In collaboration with: Fundación ”la Caixa”
Starting on 10 October 2023
Times: Tuesdays to Fridays from 10.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m.
Advance booking: tel. +34 986 113900 Ext. 200 / E-mail: comunicacion@marcovigo.com
Children's Workshops
In collaboration with: Fundación ”la Caixa”
Starting on 14 October 2023
Horario: sábados de 11.00 a 12.30 (de 3 a 6 años) y de 12.30 a 14.00 (de 7 a 12 años)
Advance booking: tel. +34 986 113900 Ext. 200 / E-mail: recepcion@marcovigo.com
Information and Guided Tours
Gallery staff are happy to answer questions and queries related to the exhibition.
Additional guided tours are available:
Daily at 6.00 p.m
'À la carte' group tours, by appointment. Tel. +34 986 113900 Ext. 200 / +34 986 113900 Ext. 308
Interactive maps via the Vigo App
The interactive maps system accessible on the Vigo App allows visitors to consult exhibition-related content (videos, images, information about the works on display), either via beacons or Bluetooth devices located in the galleries, or elsewhere inside the museum, via the map on the screen of your mobile phone after downloading the app, or on the Concello de Vigo website
Foto 1:
Nada Al-Ahdal
Foto 2:
Gretchen Cara Daily
Summary
JORDI BERNADÓ. ID Project
Jimmy Wales
Co-founder of Wikipedia
Huntsville, USA, 1966
Chose the London Library, London, UK, 2015
Jimmy Wales, who attempted to fence the void that resides in everything important, chose to have his portrait taken at The London Library in London.
Gao Xingjian
Nobel Prize for Literature
Ganzhou, China, 1940
Chose the Palais-Royal, Paris, France, 2016
To Gao Xingjian, Paris is synonymous with freedom. Perhaps that is why he decided to have his portrait taken in the grounds of the Palais-Royal, with the Comédie Française behind him.
Rosario Quispe
Indigenous community leader
Jujuy, Argentina, 1968
Chose Salinas Grandes, Jujuy, Argentina, 2017
Rosario Quispe chose to have her portrait taken in a place without which we could understand neither herself nor her struggle, which is why she is in Salinas Grandes, Jujuy, Argentina.
Nada Al-Ahdal
Human rights activist
Zabid, Yemen, 2002
Chose Amman, Jordan, 2019
Dressed as a bride to represent lost childhood, Nada al-Ahdal chose to have her portrait taken in Amman, Jordan, the city where she found shelter after being forced to flee from Yemen.
Gretchen Cara Daily
Bilogist
Washington D.C, USA, 1964
Chose a ceiba, Sabalito, Costa Rica, 2019
Gretchen Cara Daily chose to have her portrait taken standing before “La Ceiba”, a unique tree in the village of Sabalito, Costa Rica, a country with which she has close ties. The people of Sabalito say that this tree symbolises all that nature provides for humanity, that it is a portal that looks into the past and links it to the present and the future. A tree, this tree, any tree, can perhaps awaken in us the deepest understanding of how intimately we depend on nature.
Stephen Hawking
Cientist
Oxford, UK. 1942-2018
Chose the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge, UK, 2018
Stephen Hawking chose the Centre for Mathematical Sciences in Cambridge as the site of his portrait (which turned out to be the last photo taken of him in life). However, the careful observer will notice something else in the shot. Just before it was taken, the overcast sky opened up and the moon appeared in the lefthand corner of the frame. So we might say that this is a portrait of Stephen Hawking looking at the moon.
Muhammad Yunus
Nobel Peace Prize
Chittagong, Bangladesh, 1940
Chose the Yunus Centre, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2019
Muhammad Yunus chose the Yunus Centre, on the 16th floor of the Grameen Bank in Dhaka, Bangladesh, as the site of his portrait. The sitting took place in the meeting room and before the shot Yunus asked only to take off his shoes.
Steven Pinker
Cognitive psychologist
Montreal, Canada. 1954
Chose the William James Hall, Harvard, USA, 2019
Steven Pinker chose to be photographed at the entrance to the William James Building at Harvard University, where he teaches and pursues part of his research work.
Vivian Gornick
Writer
New York, USA, 1935
Chose the Building on the corner of 7th East / 12thSt. New York, USA, 2018
Vivian Gornick chose to have her portrait taken outside the house where she lives and writes – though perhaps they are one and the same thing – all the while looking out of the window at the city she loves, New York.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Writer
Enugu, Nigeria, 1977
Chose Freedom Park, Lagos, Nigeria, 2017
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie chose to have her portrait taken in Freedom Park in Lagos, the city where she lives. The park once housed a prison, Her Majesty’s Broad Street Prison. It is now a constant reminder of what must never happen again.
Ferran Adrià
Chef
L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain, 1962
Chose Cala Montjoi, Girona, Spain, 2016
Ferran Adrià chose to be portrayed at Cala Montjoi, the cove in Roses where, armed with intuition and perseverance, he revolutionised world cuisine at elBulli.
Pedro Opeka
Missionary
San Martín, Argentina, 1948
Chose Akamasoa, Antananarivo, Madagascar, 2019
Pedro Opeka decided to be portrayed in Akamasoa, in the outskirts of Antananarivo, Madagascar.
Woody Allen
Film director
New York, USA, 1935
Chose the Metropolitan Museum, New York, USA, 2015
Asked “What is your place in the world?”, Woody Allen found it difficult to decide between Paris and New York. Finally, however, the balance was tipped for the latter in this battle for his affections between his passion for Europe and his love for what is, to put it rather grandiloquently, the city of his life: New York. From the whole city, Allen decided to have his photo taken at the Metropolitan Museum and, as chance would have it, the spot where he finally chose to stand was before The Triumph of Marius, a painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.
Reed Brody
Lawyer
New York, USA, 1953
Chose New York, USA, 2018
Reed Brody chose to have his portrait taken at the entrance to the Brooklyn apartment block where he lived throughout his childhood, and where he had not returned until the day of the shoot. As well as a “dictator hunter”, Reed Brody is also known as the man with the red scarf. No matter what situation he finds himself in, he always wears one around his neck. In this portrait too. It’s just a matter of looking closely, of getting a little closer, and – as with most things in life – it suddenly appears.
Artists
Jordi Bernadó
Jordi Bernadó (Lleida, 1966) understands photography as a form of knowledge. He approaches the world around him with an ambitious and rigorous eye, and his aim to decodify his surroundings has given rise to an extensive artistic corpus, at once personal and complex.
The play between fiction and reality, the secret life that lies in the blind spots of representation, these are some of the main features in his kaleidoscopic work, which addresses a wide range of topics, such as identity, ways of inhabiting space, and architecture, at both individual and collective levels.
Winner of the Ministry of Culture Award to the Best Book of the Year 2002 and the PHotoESPAÑA Prize 2002 for the Best Photography Book with Very Very Bad News (Ed. Actar, 2002); finalist in the Prix du Livre d’Auteur 2010 at Les Rencontres d’Arles Internationales de la Photographie with the book Welcome to Espaiñ (Ed. Actar, 2009). Winner of the Fotopres Fellowship and of the Endesa X Grant.
His most recent solo shows include, among others, Campo Contracampo, XV Spanish Bienniale of Architecture and Urbanism BEAU (Tokyo / New York / Mexico City, 2022); Flâneur 360, XV Spanish Bienniale of Architecture and Urbanism BEAU (Tokyo / New York / Mexico City, 2022); De profundis, Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona, 2022); Welcome to Espaiñ. Festival Ojos Rojos (Xábia, 2022); Belleza y las raras artes del simulacro, in Alquézar/Zuheros: encuentros en la distancia. Fundación Rafael Botí (Córdoba, 2022); Si no, mañana. Galería Senda (Barcelona, 2021); Miscelánea de saberes inútiles, Espai Casinet, El Masnou, 2021); Belleza y las raras artes del simulacro, in Alquézar/Zuheros: encuentros en la distancia. Fundación Rafael Botí (Córdoba, 2021); Simulacrum Bourrée. Fundación Rafael Botí (Córdoba, 2019); Las Huellas del Quijote, PHotoESPAÑA, Museo de Cuenca (Cuenca, 2019).