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Fran Orallo Alvarez
Fran Orallo was born in Badajoz (Spain) in 1979, city at which he lives and works at present. He studies art in the UPV (Technical University of Valencia) and was graduated in 2006. Since then his work has been showed in many collectives’ exhibitions, several biennales, and international video art festivals all over the world, with exhibitions in cities like Paris, Madrid, Mexico DF, La Paz, Buenos Aires, Montevideo o Santiago de Chile. Also his work appears in several catalogues published by different institutions.
Text-Statement:
We live in a world of contrast where lots of breeds, cultures and religions live together. We need to learn how to respect each other, with our differences and our similarities, because all of us are human, and like humans we have the same feeling, emotions, worries… and of course, rights. The world is in a constant tension between people of different cultures, nowadays, in Europe live people from all over the world, people with different kind of religion and manners, people with a different background, that have to adapt to a new culture. Religion is the biggest problem that causes more conflicts between humans, all the religions are unique, and the conflicts start when two religions have to live together. The religion has already been causing wars all over the world since the man is man. And nowadays there are conflicts between Muslims and Christians or Jews.
An international problem is being caused by the massive movement of emigrants. Some experts compare this situation with the million of refugees from the Second World War. Wars and hungry are sweeping the African continent, therefore millions of people want to leave their countries and come to live to Europe, because in their countries they have any possibility to survive, we have to welcome them, our continent is rich enough to give these people political asylum. In my opinion the rich countries should take care of the people that can’t live in their countries and have to emigrate. But also, these people must adapt to the new country and their manners, and it is here when the problem starts.
Racism, Xenophobia, Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are growing in our culture. Lots of cultures have to live together, and the intolerance between each other is causing a big problem. Wars and terrorism (that in my opinion it is another kind of war) don’t help to stop the racism, quite the opposite, is making we hate each other more. Terrorism is the disease of the world in the XXI century. The world has changed a lot since the twin towers destruction; nowadays we live obsessed with the Muslims and the terrorism, and lots of people don’t understand that the same Muslims are against the terrorism, that just a little part of the Muslims religion agree with the terrorism, the most radicals.
In Europe’s capitals, there are lots of ghettos with thousands of people living there, separate between cultures, and closed to the culture of the country in which they are living. In my opinion this have to be avoided, people from another country should integrated in the host country and try to respect their culture, as well as the national people have to respect the culture of the foreign people.
In a globalized world the developed countries have become a mix of cultures that in my opinion enrich the society. We can learn a lot from each other, but nevertheless we are starting to hate each other, the intolerance or the afraid for the different has already been causing problems between cultures since the massive emigration of the last 20 years. We need to learn how to live each other, and try to integrate to the foreign people. In my opinion we can build a better society, in which the respect between each other would be a fundamental principle. We can build a multicultural society composed by different religions and cultures, in which foreign people and national people live together without conflicts. All together can make a better place from this world.
Our culture is being made by different cultures; in the future we will have a new society formed by different people from all over the world, a new society more cosmopolitan, with lots of traditions from different countries, with different philosophies and ways of thinking, all citizens from the same country. That has already been happening in the big capitals, like London, Paris, or Berlin. I think this is the new model of society of the XXI century, a post-modern society.
Video title
Secuencias, 2015, 8’35”
Sequences is an experiment with the image, to be more precise with the self-portrait. The result is a series of four videos on loop of two minutes each in which I perform a series of actions in which the sense of reality is altered. I understand my videos as technological performances that would be impossible to achieve in reality. The work is presented in two interrelated screens, in the first video my face appear and, using my hands. The idea of disappearing is a constant in my work. In the second video It is shown a person whose eyes watching us while showing us the same person distorted, in this fragment express the paradox of the observer / exhibitionist. In the third video my head inflates like a balloon, referring to the absurd, and finally my face teleports from screen to screen. The entire video is a performative self-portrait that speaks of the altered perception of reality.
