Drifting through Cityscapes Drifting through Cityscapes MTL final copy | Page 21

Pepe Espaliu (carrying)
Pepe Espaliú (Cordoba, 1955 - Madrid, 1993) is one of the
leading artists of the Spanish generation of the Eighties.
Painter, sculptor, illustrator and writer, he develops a co-
herent and meaningful work very closely associated to his
reflections on his own identity. His work is thanks to one of
the most profound conceptualisations of living with AIDS,
which caused his death and which he boldly accepted
on an artistic level and where he produced some of his
most important works.After learning about his illness in
1990 Espaliú’s work is given an even greater symbolism,
through sculptures of cages and crutches, the artist refers
to his condition and extrapolates it into a shared univer-
sal order. This conception of struggle against the lack of
communication regarding AIDS reaches its peak in per-
haps one of Espaliú’s most recognised pieces, Carrying
Project which is embodied in the sculpture shaped as iron
palanquin, chairs covered by a closed box and actions
related to the act of transportation. In San Sebastian the
artist walks through the streets of the city carried in the
arms of his friends from the film festival headquarters to
the Town Hall and in Madrid from Parliament building to
the Museo Reina Sofía.