ÁLVARO GÓMEZ-PIDAL
ARTIST FILMMAKER PHOTOGRAPHER
A LADDER IN FRONT OF THE MINISTRY
A ladder in front of the Russian Ministry of foreign affairs, politicians at a celebration in palace, two armed individuals guarding a rooftop. Middle eastern men sit at a meeting, an empty box of noodles inside a skyscraper, a prison ward, a surveillance room. The wind changes direction at a power plant in Moscow, a corpse waits for the elevator…
This collection of images relate to mechanisms of power, geopolitics, wealth, surveillance and control, echoing critical and recent international events. Challenging the viewers by turning into witnesses before voyeuristic photographs that seem real. Or are they staged and even recent?
Do they represent reality or is it the collective memory giving them a different meaning based on symbolism and present time context?
Is our will to project new meanings into images that were taken with a different one and clichés, stereotypes or fiction bigger than reality covering up for the absence of information?