IMAGINARY COUNTRY, #MARE | DANIEL GONZÁLEZ
The artistic research of Daniel González (Argentina, 1963) is characterized by the design and creation of public artworks, which he himself defines as Ephemeral Architecture – temporary and ephemeral interventions in urban contexts and spaces.
The series Imaginary Country is a site-specific project, carried out in collaboration with the city of Milan, which takes inspiration from the traditional Argentine practice of “pasacalles” – street banners that could have various functions – advertising, declarations of love, birthday wishes, congratulations for graduations. González adapts this practice to the current and contemporary language of social networks.
The use of hashtags has become a daily habit thanks to platforms like Instagram: a simple word identifies a theme or concept, attributing to the associated image all the meanings that follow. González applies this practice to reality through his installations. Large white banners made of recycled Argentine polycarbonate, each measuring 1×5 meters, are painted blue by the artist with the symbol # followed by a single word. Then these banners are hung on buildings in certain streets of Lambrate, Milan, a neighborhood chosen for its countless creative and artistic realities, design agencies, communication or graphic studios, and art galleries.
This intervention in the urban landscape aims to achieve the same effect as hashtags on Instagram: guiding and, to a certain extent, manipulating the viewer’s imagination by leveraging disruptive and out-of-context concepts. The sea (#mare) that González suggests is certainly not traceable in an ordinary urban setting of streets and parking lots…
The concept, both physical and abstract since it is written in letters and deliberately physically distant, forcefully and incisively imposes itself on public space, transforming it. The impossibility of having a sea in the middle of Milan immediately becomes realistic through this language, just as the hashtag – commonly used to comment posts and images on social media – shifts thoughts and connects semantically distant concepts and images, creating new geographies through a process resembling free associations.
Reality and imagination, what is and what could be. González’s works play on the border of this duality, while pursuing the idea of art as pervasive in everyday life, people, and places, from which it is impossible to escape or be indifferent.
Daniel González
Imaginary Country, Ephemeral Architecture, 2017
Site-specific installation along streets and in public spaces, Milano-Lambrate, on view from September 19th, 2017, extended till May 31st, 2018
Produced by Associazione Made in Lambrate with the support by Municipio 3 – City of Milan, with the contribution by Logotel, Marsèlleria Permanent Exhibition, ExBazzi endorsed by Time Shrine Foundation, Milan and OnePlanetOneFuture di Anne de Carbuccia.
Photo: Carola Merello, Andrea Martiradonna.
© Courtesy Studio Daniel González. Project manager Mariano Pichler.
19/07/2023