(No) soy de aquí
Gustavo Alemán
Self-Published
Spanish
Softcover
60 pages
160 x 215 mm
2013
ISBN 8461660455
“(No) soy de aquí/ I´m (not) from here ” was born of a faint but persistent discomfort, of the feeling of disbelief about my surroundings and of a dual rejection / attraction that this territory provokes in me. This work is the exploration of that discomfort and my beliefs about Murcia, the region where I live.
My Murcia is a grotesque and formless place, insecure about its identity. The signs and portents I have been photographing along the way are to me the unequivocal clues of this lack of identity. These surrealistic displays may seem simple jokes at first, but beyond their obvious humor a deep confusion and the desire to find some meaning or purpose can also be found. Even if the way to reach that goal is to use external references or borrowed stories, not too well understood.
So, my desire is not to offer just a parody of this crazy South or a comical taxonomy of provincial disasters. I think these jarring images speak as much about our present bleak economic crisis and poor prospects as about similar nonsense of the past. I hope that, by facing such foolishness with its distorted reflections we can find some way to escape this endless cycles.
Exorcism, homage, mockery and research at once, “(No) soy de aquí” is the (self) portrait, made by one of its confused inhabitants, of a place impossible but real.
(source: https://dergreif-online.de/artist-blog/no-soy-de-aqui-gustavo-aleman/)
About the Artist
Gustavo Alemán (b. 1977, Murcia) is a photographer, editor and photography professor. He studied at EFTI school (Madrid) where he took the International Master of Photography. Later he opened in his hometown, along with his sister, the “Gatos de Marte” art gallery specialized in photography (2009-2012). After the publication of his first self-published book “(No) soy de aquí” (2013), following the solo exhibition of the same name in la Kursala (Cádiz), and after a lifetime of fascination with books and their expressive possibilities, in 2014 he founded the Fuego Books publishing house together with his sister Ángela.
(source: https://efti.es/staff/gustavo-aleman)
Further Information
Further reading on (No) soy de aquí.
