(No) soy de aquí
Gustavo Alemán
Self-Published
Spanish
Softcover
Edition of 750
60 pages
160 x 215 mm
2013
ISBN 8461660455
“(I’m) Not from Here” is born from a subtle but persistent unease, a feeling of estrangement from my surroundings, and the rejection/attraction duality that this territory generates in me. This work explores that unease and my beliefs about Murcia, my region.
My Murcia is a grotesque and formless place, unsure of its identity. The signs and portents I portray along my path are, for me, the deepest expression of this lack of identity. These surreal displays may seem like simple mockery or pranks, but beyond their obvious humor lies the bitter aftertaste of confusion and the desire to find meaning or purpose, even if it means resorting to external references and borrowed stories that are not fully understood.
I think these strident statements speak as much to our bleak present of economic crisis and poor prospects as they do to a past of similar absurdity. Hopefully, confronting such absurdity through exaggeration and absurdity can offer us a small escape route from these cycles with no end in sight.
Exorcism, homage, mockery and investigation, “(I) am not from here” is the (self)portrait, by one of its confused inhabitants, of an impossible but real place…
– Gustavo Alemán
(Source: https://dergreif.org/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://dergreif.org/artist-blog/no-soy-de-aqui-gustavo-aleman/)
Further Reading
You may find the reading fully online here.
