What's going on
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
My work is a vindication of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, I make a criticism of the global situation we are going through, a call for solidarity and social responsibility, but above all, to love and unity.
I have used flags as a graphic support because they represent values, collectives, organizations, nations...
I play with the ambiguity generated by my flags to arouse feelings of love and unity and to reflect on the absurdity of barriers, war and political conflicts.
Geographical Scope
Project Region
Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
EU Programme or fund
Which funds
Description of the project
Summary
“What’s Going On” is my first performance. I have used my favorite song to vindicate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to make a critique of the global situation we are going through, a call for solidarity and social responsibility, but above all, for love and unity.
To do this, I have intervened the courtyard of the Altamira headquarters of IED Madrid with twenty flags in which you can read the lyrics of the song printed on them. I decided to use flags as a graphic support for what they represent (communication tools to claim values, represent collectives, organizations, nations and so on, so we deduce that they are also political weapons).
For the design of these, I have made a synthesis/abstraction of the original flags of several countries, some in critical situations in terms of human rights and others in “privileged” situations. I play with the ambiguity and confusion that my flags may generate to arouse these feelings of love and unity, to invite reflection on the absurdity of putting up barriers, generating war and political conflicts, confronting each other instead of reaching out and finding solutions based on collaboration and honesty.
Key objectives for sustainability
"What's Going On" is a completely sustainable project in terms of the impact and change of consciousness it aims to generate in people. Making this world a place based on collaboration, coexistence, respect and honesty would mean a crucial generational change to face the social, environmental and political problems we face as a society. There is nothing more sustainable than saving people's souls and, from there, starting to change the world.
My artistic action would not need to be produced more than once, the collection of flags would serve for a traveling exhibition in which the production would already be done so my work would not cause too much environmental impact and would then be sustainable.
As for the business vision of my project, I refer to what I said above. The fact of not needing to produce constantly makes the project very profitable. The idea for the future would be to move the project to different galleries and festivals dedicated to emerging contemporary art and graphic design.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
I have printed the lyrics on 70x100 cm flags for all the symbolic value that a flag has and to put on the table all the geopolitical conflicts and all kinds of conflicts that have arisen in recent months. The timelessness of the song is essential in my work, everything I have done has been done for that reason, every day that goes by the song takes on more meaning and that is where the magic arises: we have not fixed anything, we have not changed anything, on the contrary, the problems have increased and it is incredible and exciting to listen to a song that was written fifty years ago and that seems to have been written today. My work also highlights the most important characteristic of music, timelessness.
An important decision that cannot be overlooked is the choice of typeface: Franklin Gothic. I made this decision when I remembered Yoko Ono and John Lennon's famous campaign "The War Is Over", I didn't doubt for a moment that this was the typeface with a vindictive character that I was looking for in my project.
Something essential in my project was to play with ambiguity in the interpretation of the flags, hence the idea of synthesising the flags of different countries and abstracting them by focusing mainly on colour and shape. All my flags are composed of three horizontal stripes because most of the flags of the world are composed in this way, the decision was made based on statistical data. It is the same with the colour, the colours I have used are the most used colours in all the flags of the world.
Each person, according to their culture and origin, will think of a country when they see one flag or another, that is the magic of my project.
Key objectives for inclusion
I synthesized the flags of multiple countries and printed on them the lyrics of What's Going On with the aim of inviting the viewer to reflect. The flags were hung in the courtyard of the Altamira headquarters of IED Madrid. During the experience of contemplation and listening (the song will be played throughout the performance), the user should think about the absurdity of all geopolitical, war and social conflicts and encounter the feelings intrinsic to human beings: honesty, solidarity, love and coexistence based on collaboration and helping others. And so it happened, everyone who attended my performance was carried away by these feelings, some of them crying, making it clear that all the objectives of my project had been fulfilled.
Marvin Gaye explained it all better than anyone else: "To be fair, my pure heart offered love without expecting anything in return. That's how I saw myself. People were confused and needed relief. God offered it to them through my music. I was privileged to be the instrument".
Results in relation to category
As it is an artistic project (based on graphic design and music as the main axes) the result of my project and its objectives can only be seen in the spectator himself. The user, when contemplating my project, felt in total harmony with his deepest feelings, the feelings that are intrinsic to human beings and that make us all feel part of the same place.
How Citizens benefit
Being an artistic exhibition, the materialisation and the result of my project is reflected in an emotional way in all the people who attend the event. In this way, from our deepest being, we begin the social change we seek, because as Gandhi said: "If you want to change the world, change yourself”.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
During my research process I came across artistic actions using flags as a support, all of them really enriching and interesting. Some of them even bordered on politics, although with more of an emphasis on specific issues such as football and its relationship with society. What is really innovative about my project are the pillars on which it is based and the issues it covers. My artistic action combines two main disciplines, music as the main axis, and graphic design. All this using flags as a support, thus generating a gigantic political and social message, not only because of what a flag symbolises, but because of my discourse, my narrative, my concept, my story.
Learning transferred to other parties
My artistic action would not need to be produced more than once, the collection of flags would be used for a travelling exhibition in which the production would already be done, so my work would not cause too much environmental impact and would be relatively sustainable.
As for the possibility of moving my project, I refer to the above. The fact that I do not need to produce constantly makes the project very profitable. The idea for the future would be to move the project to different galleries and festivals dedicated to emerging contemporary art and graphic design.
