On the 20th of November Spanish based artist Jorge Rodríguez Gerada will create a llabyrinththe size of teleview football fields that when viewed from space will appear as the face of a young girl. Visitors will come visit the labyrinth wearing all black and at exactly 12:14pm a satellite will take a photograph from space. Rodríguez Gerada is creating this image as part of the 350 EARTH project and as an answer to the question: Who will deal with the outcome of our actions?
The young girl whose portrait Rodríguez Geradais will create is from a low lying community on the coast of northern Spain, one of the areas most vulnerable in the world to sea level rise. Rodríguez Gerada is working to send the message to the world that if we do not take bold strides to help solve the climate crisis it is this young girl from Delta del Ebro that will shoulder the burden of our actions today. This piece is done as part of Rodríguez Gerada identity series that he started in 2002 where he does gigantic charcoal portraits of anonymous people that scale the walls of buildings in different cities.
“My idea is to show that we should all be seen with dignity. I believe that our identity should come from within not from the brands that we wear. We should question who chooses our cultural icons and role models, our values and aesthetics. We are living in a time were corporate manipulation has become very refined and effective. Corporate manipulation has at its base the premise of the individual being considered dispensable in order to change the thinking of the larger group. By giving importance to one anonymous life I want to give importance to empathy.”
Photo of the young girl:
Photos of his portraits of his Identity Series: