Painting | Alberto Letamendi

Alberto LETAMENDI

DUALITY refers to the existence of two different phenomena or characters in the same person or in the same state of things. Lokarriak” - ‘Ser/Estar Sujeto’, is presented as an invitation to reflect and analyze duality, both at a personal and collective level, currently present in our society.

The series is presented as a dialogical contrast inspired by the writings of two authors whose work, despite being more than 50 years old, is still contemporary.On the one hand, Franz Kafka (The Trial, Metamorphosis, Amerika,...), whose characters walk through a disturbing world of uncertainty, fears and doubts, from which they never get out. In the play “El proceso”, K is condemned for a crime he does not know, he begins a long process in search of answers without getting any, and incredibly, he ends up admitting his conviction and assuming his execution without even knowing the reason for it.

In this project the disturbed character is represented by AL, a simple individual, like many others. AL constantly observes in the mirror the image of his Alter Ego, LA, and reflects on the reasons for his situation looking for answers that offer him a way out. In short, a solution to his doubts and fears.

On the other hand, George Orwell (1984), who in his dystopian fantasy shows a totalitarian State in which Big Brother, the guardian of society and the supreme judge who sees everything, stands above society. A State in which ties are continually exercised, alliances are changed to initiate new conflicts that serve its interests, rewriting the past and fabricating a post-truth. Clearly, a prediction of everything that is happening today. The spectator observes the work from this perspective, the mass from a position of superiority, of surveillance. But as agent subjects, we can become aware of this “Big Brother”, of this dystopia, and this knowledge makes us strong enough to confront and overcome the bonds and fears it imposes on us, and subvert them by creating resistance and new alliances that rewrite the present and the future.