Multimedia art by IE School of Architecture professor Daniel Canogar on show at the European Council during the Spanish EU presidency

Multimedia art by IE School of Architecture professor Daniel Canogar on show at the European Council during the Spanish EU presidency.

A multimedia work of art by artist and IE School of Architecture professor Daniel Canogar will be on show for the six-month term of the Spanish presidency of the EU in the atrium of the European Council building in Brussels. The multimedia art project is entitled “Travesías” and comprises an 33m by 1.65m  LED screen which resembles a flying carpet over visitors’ heads, featuring people walking, running, or crawling.

The video screen was inaugurated on January 5 by the Madrid-born artist himself and by the Spanish minister for culture, Ángeles González-Sinde, who also presented an extensive cultural program for the six months that Spain will head the EU. “Travesía” combines sculpture and video designed to illustrate the numerous changes that have taken place in a united Europe in the context of society and communication and the digital world.

Daniel Canogar (Madrid, 1964) is a photographer and audiovisual artist who is a world reference in the field of art and new media. He studied image science at Madrid’s Complutense University and gained a Master with a specialization in photography at New York University and the International Center for Photography in 1990. He is currently artistic director of VIDA, an annual competition run by the Telefónica Foundation. His art focuses on photography, sculpture and installation.

Canogar forms part of the faculty of IE University, where he teaches professor of “Experimentation” at IE School of Architecture, delivering classes with a “high creative voltage” in which students enter into direct contact with contemporary creation.

Travesías 

Travesías is a video installation using a LED screen, created specially for the atrium of the Justus Lipsius building of the European Union Council. The work will be exhibited from January to June of 2010, coinciding with the Spanish Presidency of the European Union.

The sculptural screen, which is 33 meters long and 1.65 meters wide, has an undulating shape and includes a full loop. The screen, long and thin, resembles a pathway suspended in mid air.

The screen displays videos of people walking or crawling, taken with an overhead camera. The images mirror the constant flow of people that cross the atrium. The workers, politicians, advisers and visitors of the European Council animate the building and, consequently, the European project.

The sinuous forms of the installation create interesting perspectives, including the appearance and disappearance of figures through the length of the screen. The screen is also reflected on the façades and the glass ceiling of the atrium, generating curious visual effects.

In words of Daniel Canogar (Madrid, 1964), "Travesías is a response to the profound territorial, economic and social transformations that the European Union has undergone in the last few years. This permanent state of transition inspired me to create a passage in the air that suggests vertigo, risk and also delight. Travesías seeks to create a daring version of the passage through the atrium, reminding the users and visitors of the building of the obstacles, uncertainties and effort required to advance in times of transition, and the satisfaction of discovering new paths.