Person of the year

«Man of the Year» was a title created in 1927 by Time magazine to make an obeisance to the most relevant man of each year. It had to be modified to «Person of the Year» when they contemplated it was necessary to remove the gender-based discriminatory aspect that this recognition represented. According to the magazine, Donald Trump was worthy of this honor in 2016. Thus, in January 2017, he was on the cover of the magazine, and that same month, he took office as President of the United States of America, just five months after saying “I’m asking for the vote of every African-American citizen struggling in our country today. What do you have to lose? You’re living in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58% of your youth is unemployed; what the hell do you have to lose?” and three months after the Washington Post revealed a recording from 2005 where the man of the year said, “I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”

Retaking this controversial contradiction and the research carried out as “Visual Apologues,” the intention to criticize this idea arose from ​​the use of images on magazine covers as “fleeting monuments” furthermore erected as a form of identity-civilizing racism, where these images can be depicted as calls for homogenization under the sign of the elites. “Person of the Year” happens moreover in the context of «Demonumentalization,» which has had special significance and pertinence in the strivings of several social groups in the last years. This series looks for, through the overlap of images, although without demolishing, replacing, or questioning the discourses contained in these covers. The artist looked for a simple but compelling gesture that would condense the intention that he always has in his work, which is to pack the grand narrative of history, and magazine covers became a total aid for this. In this series, the artist validates and buttresses his work in social realism and new realism, begetting pieces that speak by themselves.