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Allegro Barbaro, Juan Dies

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Hi friends! I’m Juan Dies from Zaragoza (Spain). I’m a visual arts entrepreneur, what that means, I try to communicate through my works and projects a personal aesthetic journey. I started being attired by music when I was a child and saw to spin the vinyl on the turntable. What magical sounds! And what about the album covers? From the ’70s till nowadays, it’s possible to follow art tendencies and graphic design just watching them. I spent a long season working as a DJ. But nights are hard. After a number of years in the tourism realm and some adventures in fashion, I could start my creative career in 2015 when I did my first exhibition with some photographs of urban art. First, Jean Michel Basquiat and Banksy later, made me confident about my passion and to follow this way of life until today. These last years, I’ve organized several “Artistic & Social” workshops and I’ve managed a Street Art Community addressed to transform little corners of the city. Now, if you allow me, It’s time to introduce you to my little world.

The art of the imperfect

Allegro Bárbaro is the name of my new exhibition, made up of large-format graphic work, visual animations, and an immersive 180º video. Inspiration comes from street ads, graffiti excerpts, and Pop iconography. The videos show transitions between layers stripping the process. Tears, stains, cracks, little signals that denote the passage of time but allow a re-interpretation, a particular look.

Allegro Barbaro, composed in 1911, is one of Béla Bartók‘s most famous and frequently performed solo piano pieces. I designed this graphic work during a Visual Arts Residency in the 2017’ Spring on BARTR Budapest. It was a wonderful and exciting experience. The name is a little homage to the City and its people. After the stay, I came back to Zaragoza with the aim of animating these images.

Allegro Barbaro Social Media Promo. I did a number of posts with music. This is Brenda Lee singing “Everybody Loves Me But You” in a KNO version.

Immersive 180º audiovisual kindness

The experience consists of a succession of moving images on a surface that surrounds the viewer in a semi-circle. It will be necessary an enabled room for immersion in this sensory experience. Noise-free space where anybody could feel comfortable. A place where it is easy to relax. Rhythm, color, and sound stimulate the senses recreating an effect gently psychedelic, which leads to entertaining and, who knows, maybe to the meditation?

Room dimensions are required in advance to map the video projection. Calibration is one of the critical aspects to be aware of. Like this, It`s possible to estimate the final resolution of visuals. My respect for Ernesto Sarasa who taught me how to set up these animations.

A video excerpt from the Allegro Barbaro Exhibition. Room 0
Etopia, Center for Art and Technology. Zaragoza, Spain.

Allegro Barbaro in Etopia

Allegro Barbaro composition made of vinyl on the window. The classic Pop pattern. I tried three different opacities to get a good balance between definition and natural light.
“Just the floating, the little flashy and the volatile reveal themselves only to deep and contemplative attention” Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Etopia Hall has great dimensions. The way to approach the exhibition to the audience was to build a central wall in the middle of the hall. The purpose, to mix my illustration with different local artist’s interventions. The target, a new mural.
Room 0. A closed space gives the audiovisual a powerful experience because it provokes more intimate communication between you and the viewer. All in black except video projection.
Allegro Barbaro Propaganda.
Etopia is a building with two façades made of LEDs where visuals are projected when the night comes down. It gives the city landscape fresh air that makes many people appreciate it. Each year Etopia Staff proposes a new Media Façade Academy to teach how it works and to project the visuals that artists have created during the residency

And finally

I want to send my deep gratitude to the Spar Team. This is a great opportunity to open my works to you and its Community. This post has been made during the virus quarantine. It’s time to meditate, take strength and nourish our soul with the things we like. If something has caught your attention, Dear Reader, please contact me on oolagallery.com
Thanks for your precious time. See you soon!

5 Comments
  1. Avatar photo
    Cynthia Fusillo
    April 15, 2020

    Hello Juan..this is Great! thank you for sharing it. I love ‘immersive’ art/image. Also, making it available on such a large scale/public is fabulous. It was exciting to see. I wish I could see it in person..I live in Barcelona but NO traveling for a while.
    hasta pronto
    Cynthia

    Reply
    1. Juan Dies
      April 16, 2020

      Hi Cynthia, how r you? Thank you for your words!
      In this case, the works’ size is important. The hall was impressively white, wide and high! And a big shout to the people who helped to make the final assembly. Only by myself wouldn’t have been possible.
      In the end, the goal arrives working as a team…
      When lockdown finishes, we can keep in touch. We’re close to each other!
      Hasta pronto -;) Juan

      Reply
  2. Avatar photo
    Anastasia Patsey
    April 20, 2020

    Hi, Juan!
    Thank you so much for sharing your work and welcome to our community. The installations look very impressive. The scale, the different layers and motions work excellent together.
    You’ve mentioned street art and the urban space as your inspirational source. Do you yourself make graffiti or street art? And what is the street art scene like in your city?

    Talk to you soon,
    Anastasia

    Reply
    1. Juan Dies
      April 21, 2020

      Hi Anastasia, how nice to hear from you!

      First of all, congratulations because there are a lot of Artists in your Virtual Studio Proposal. I’ll need time to know about all of them!

      I am pretty new in street actions but is an area that I’m very interested in.

      After organizing some Art Guerrilla Workshops, during 2019 I coordinated a group of enthusiastic people with the aim of transforming little spaces in inspirational corners and did some actions in order to connect with the neighborhood. I attach some links if you want to see them.
      http://blogzac.es/arte-urbano-transformador-por-donde-empezamos/

      The first action was to promote the work of a Gipsy and Arab women collective called “Hilvana”. They wanted to address the Fashion scope and we did some posters with their designs and stuck them in a marginal quarter. http://blogzac.es/hilvana-en-la-calle-primeros-pasos/

      Later, we took a Revolutionary Character of our Independence War (s.XIX) and did a Choral Action in the Downtown.
      http://blogzac.es/un-palafox-activista-en-el-espacio-urbano/

      How to build more sophisticated stencils, the use of big format photography as the French Artist JR does and learning about good slogans to go with, are my current challenges.

      Finally, In Zaragoza, there is an International Street Art Festival called Asalto https://www.festivalasalto.com/

      And of course, an independent underground scene of many graffiti writers that nobody knows to keep their activity anonymous.

      I hope don’t bore you with too much information -;)

      Cheers and see you soon!

      Juan

      Reply
  3. Avatar photo
    Anastasia Patsey
    April 28, 2020

    Thank you for sharing the links, Juan! The festival looks really amazing. And the murals are impressive.

    Reply
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Tags abstractactivismartarte brutoarte urbanobrut artcartooncollagecomicexhibitionfashionfluxusgraffitigrungepopartpost graffitipunkstreetarturbanartvideovisualart

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