RUBEN ORTIZ

Museo Picasso of Barcelona needed to create the communication campaign for an exhibition
about a period of time Picasso came back to Barcelona, during 1917, celebrating the centenary from that time. So we played the game of contextualization, by placing real old images of Picasso, from that specific time, in the actual current locations. Taking pictures of each location in the same perspective Picasso’s pictures were taken let us show a simple but funny visual game of blending images, being able to connect from the present with a character 100 years ago.

In summer 2018, art curator Gema Darbo invited me to travel to Ruta 234. With almost 300 miles, the Spanish road N-234 crosses one of the least populous areas in Europe. At least 28% of the Spanish population has left the rural area in the last 50 years, 53% of the population is concentrated in only 5% of the territory. While the depopulation crisis speeds ahead in the rural area, around 600,000 households have barely acces to the Internet. The digital divide draw a new landscape crossed by gigantic platforms such as Instagram where tens of thousands of users can visit in real time places inhabited by just inhabitants. If the Internet has changed the notion of what we understand as a global audience, the photobook Ruta 234 reflects on the interaction generated by digital participation between two realities of differentiation. Ultimately, Ruta 234 presents the result of a roadtrip: an observation of the blurred lines that divide the rural and the industrial, the oblivion and the opportunity.

Curator: Gema Darbo
Design: Ariadna Serrahima