What does the city want to show me?

The work of Johannes Gerard proposes an artistic exploration of culture, space and identity in Quito, through videos, performance and elements autobiographical. During the process, Gerard toured Quito through daily journeys in buses or walks around the city. Letting yourself be carried away by chance, curiosity and intuition, the artist became a distant observer of urban life, discovering the diversity, complexity and beauty of the capital. In their tours he was able to get to know different places, people, situations and atmospheres that inspired him to create his work. With his drift, the artist seeks to reveal and stress the traces of the utopian and the dystopian in the city and relate them to his own social disconnection and search for solitude. Through his work, Gerard shows us a vision personal and criticism of Quito, a city that for the artist becomes dichotomous since it is at the same time a dream and a nightmare, a place of meeting and isolation, a reality and a fiction. Quito, like many cities, is a city that lives in a contradiction, houses intersecting realities, dreams and nightmares that struggle between the progress and regression. It is a city that offers opportunities and challenges, that welcomes and excludes, that unites and divides, that transforms and resists, that adapts and rebels, which is invented and remembered. Quito lives a reality that It involves fiction, hope and political disenchantment. The project proposes a cultural experience manifested in videos about the Daily life and atmosphere of the city taken during the day and night, and a performance that narrates the relationship between the city, the people and Gerard. He artist uses different media such as video and performance to create a narrative that reflects on identity, memory, power, violence, endurance. Gerard draws inspiration from his own biography, as well as the history and culture of Quito, to create a work that dialogues with the social and political context of the country. The artist also incorporates elements from nature, popular art, architecture, religion and literature, to create a visual language that expresses their sensitivity and commitment to the environment and human rights humans, each fight is a way to transform dystopia into utopia.

Rubén Darío Díaz Chávez Curator No Lugar – Contemporary Art, 

Quito, Ecuador, November 2023

With Thanks To Stroom, The Hague, Netherlands

¿Qué Quiere Mostrarme la Ciudad? / What Does the City Want to Show Me?

The video has two parts - First part reflects the city during the day -  Second part focus at the city at night . The video shows both parts in one film.

Live Performance - La Ciudad, La Gente Y Yo - The City, The People and I