In a society full of prying eyes like ours, everyone can become both spectator and actor in the common spectacle. Choreographed crowds transit the nameless global city in their daily commute, experiencing a paradox between anonymity and scrutiny. The idea of Theatrum Mundi has turned into a spectacle where the world is a stage, where the drama of the society unfolds on screens. We have turned into commodities on display, our collective behaviour results in an abstract pattern of the spectacle of the multitude. Like the audience of an elaborate Theatrum Mundi, we are drawn into a mirror image of the world where, if one is attentive to detail, nothing is really what it seems.
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About the Artist
Manuel Vazquez’s (Columbia, b.1976) work to
date has a strong interest in the theatricality of city
life and spaces. His work places the spectator as a witness of a ‘spectacle’, built with visual traces, where images are meticulously constructed with a strong narrative component. It is in the spectator’s memory and imagination where they look for resonance. Vazquez was selected finalist in the Hyeres 2012 Photography Festival. In 2009, he was among the Flash Forward Emerging Photographers and he was one of the Descubrimientos finalist in PHotoEspaña 2009. In 2008 his work Traces was featured in the Bloomberg New Contemporaries. Vazquez studied Photography and Urban Culture at Goldsmiths University in London.