Antonio XoubanovaGraffiti

The book Graffiti, although it refers to the urban art movement that appeared in the 1970s in New York, explores above all our relationship to the city. It is the act of marking the city with one’s name, of repeating one’s tag on a territory, of affirming one’s existence that interests Antonio Xoubanova. He dissects this means of re-articulating the urban landscape, of gaining attention from the competition of advertising and signage. He insists on the multiplication and redundancy of an indispensable self-affirmation, in a falsely chaotic sequence and a form of book that, in echo to graffiti, frees itself from the rules (no cover, apparent binding, unstructured layout). The result is an object that can be described as baroque. The result of four years of shooting and a long collaboration with graphic designer David Mozzeta.

Antonio Xoubanova is a member of Blank Paper, a group of photographers who set up in Madrid in the early 2000s to develop and promote their work and create a common intellectual space. Since then, their photography has continued to evolve through a practice whose main characteristics are collaboration and exchange. Far from official artistic circles and institutions, these photographers have managed to weave an independent network of production, exhibition and dissemination based on solidarity.