Marcar [Branding]

Marcar [Branding]

  • 2016
  • Digital copy on paper
  • 90 x 60 cm
  • Cat. F_174
  • Acquired in 2016
By:
Carlos Martín

Francesc Ruiz explored some of the most iconic graphic designs of corporate images and symbols of identity in his exhibition 'CORREOS' ['Mail'] at the García Gallery (Madrid, 2016), paying particular attention to the Spanish postal service and its visual branding marks. He then decided to broaden his scope to other public areas and began to investigate the work of historic designer José María Cruz Novillo, who created logos for some of Spain's biggest corporations and institutions of the past 40 years (Prisa, Endesa, El Mundo, Cope, PSOE, Renfe, Repsol and many more) and indeed for the Banco de España, which commissioned him to design the set of 1000, 2000, 5000 and 10000 peseta notes which were in circulation from 1982 to 1987. This was the penultimate set prior to the introduction of the euro.

Here, Francesc Ruiz returns to these obsolete banknotes and comes up with an ironic reformulation that creates a subtle feeling of estrangement in the faces of the personages depicted on each note: Juan Ramón Jiménez, Benito Pérez Galdós, Clarín, Rosalía de Castro, King Juan Carlos I and the then Crown Prince Felipe. Each panel of this surprising grid of banknotes is subtly manipulated, building up a look which, by dint of repetition, reveals how attractive engraved portraits can be (that of Galdós, for instance, is based on a painting by Joaquín Sorolla that hangs in the Perez Galdós House Museum in Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria). At the same time, they provide a microscopic view that brings to light every nuance of facial expression. The succession of faces seems to be wondering why they are appearing on banknotes, and how that will affect the way they are seen in the collective imagination of the public forever. Does it taint them with the non-negotiable value of money or condemn them to ostracism? Because there is no better way to forget an image (and its deepest meaning) than to reproduce it by the thousand and use it every day for monetary transactions.

Carlos Martín

 
By:
Roberto Díaz
Francesc Ruiz
Barcelona 1971

Francesc Ruiz graduated in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona. From an early age, he took an interest in reading and collected comic books, and that is precisely the medium in which he has done most of his work since the 1990s. He uses the language of comics to develop alternative discourses in regard to the social, geopolitical and historical contexts in which his work is exhibited, often in urban settings. He uses, alters and expands his form of expression (with each panel seen as a unit of meaning), his supports (the comic-book itself) and the places where comics are produced and distributed (newsagents' kiosks and comic-book stores) via large-format drawings, installations, performances and workshops. He raises the profile of alternative groups, spaces of exclusion and leisure-time subcultures; he denounces mechanisms and areas where power is abused, e.g., in his work concerned with the rampant consumerism of today's society.

He took part in the Venice Biennale in 2015 and the Gothenburg Biennial in Sweden in 2017. Since the late 1990s his work has been shown in solo exhibitions at major venues such as the Joan Miró Foundation (Barcelona, 2004), the CRAC Occitanie (Sète, France, 2005), the Museo Reina Sofía, the Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos (Burgos, 2008), the Gasworks (London, 2010), the Valencia Institute of Modern Art (Valencia, 2015); and in joint exhibitions at high-profile international venues such as the Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, USA, 2008), the Temple Gallery (Philadelphia, USA, 2010) and the Weserburg Museum (Bremen, Germany, 2013).

Roberto Díaz

 
«Mail» (Madrid, 2016). «(UN)COMMON VALUES. Two Corporate Collections of Contemporary Art», National Bank of Belgium (Brussels, 2022).
Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, vol. 3.