The Spanish artist Vermibus has been active as an adbuster for many years. Protesting against the beauty ideal proclaimed by advertising, perverted to perfection with Photoshop, which allows happiness only as a result of supposed beauty, he removes advertising posters, transforms the images in his studio using chemicals and then puts them back up in the same place again. […]
The Spanish artist Vermibus has been active as an adbuster for many years. Protesting against the beauty ideal proclaimed by advertising, perverted to perfection with Photoshop, which allows happiness only as a result of supposed beauty, he removes advertising posters, transforms the images in his studio using chemicals and then puts them back up in the same place again.
About his UN Biennale artwork // “Against”
Vermibus uses public space as a mouthpiece and podium for his critique of the values of consumerist societies, in which people become brand faces and are thus dehumanized and deprived of their own individual personality. This work aims to answer the question “What was the most decadent failure of humankind?”.
“It would probably be when a society protects the oppressor and goes against the people who fight to change the system to a better one. Advertising is key for the consumerist society, and I believe drastically limiting advertising would reduce consumption, which would significantly improve the main problems, currently facing us in particular climate change. That’s one of the reasons why my work fights against advertising in public spaces. At first sight we see a broken advertisment, but when we look closer we can find an intervention. With this artwork, I attempt to reflect on the phenomenon of when a society goes against people who are trying to address the problem and instead protect the cause of that problem.” (Vermibus)
