Skin

Skin takes us to intimate spaces immersed in a hostile environment. It portrays a journey that crosses geographical, political and religious territories where our freedom of speech is trapped in a shelter built under pressure. A space that protects us from malevolent ideological shrapnel. What is our place in the world if we are not being accepted?

As a gay man travelling around the globe, I’ve seen how some of my basic rights have been relegated to my privacy, sometimes even my secrecy. The images in this body of work are my interpretation of this swing between hostility and intimacy and viceversa. They also show how our freedom is constantly covered by layers of fear and violence. The more hostility, the greater the need for privacy. A relationship that appears to be directly proportional.

The photographs have been taken in Kyrgyzstan, Syria, Lebanon and Spain. While some have their place on the map, others could happen in one place or another. The skin bristles the same here and everywhere. Marks and scratches are irrefutable evidence to passions that arouse in private. The scars still itch and the memory hurts. Vast grounds have been turned into battlefields, in the eyes of those who have seen them turned into no man's land.

This is an ongoing project.