Mediodía 2014
Madrid’s Atocha station was formerly known as Mediodía (Midday), as it was the city’s Southbound railway hub. This is the location where David Hornillos worked between 2011 and 2014, during the central hours of the day.
Mediodía presents an enveloping world of orange brick bathed in a vibrant light that irresistibly draws in and traps all living beings like a dragnet.
With the colour orange in a leading role, David’s work faces the viewer against this brick wall, drawing him into the atmosphere of a stifling and hypnotic mental state
Ustedes, los vivos 2018
For Ustedes, los vivos [You the Living] photographer David Hornillos once again worked in the vicinity of a train station in Madrid; this time on a vacant lot adjacent to Chamartín, the city’s North station. In a similar vein to his previous project Mediodía, this book follows a constant stream of characters as they traipse across a desert landscape that might once have been a graveyard. The work is threaded together by a fine horizon line that traces the path trodden by these humans.
Ustedes, los vivos, where we gaze upon a metaphysical procession; the framed transit, naked and clean, of a cast of characters who are going nowhere because they are merely passing by.
Beings thrust into the world. In Ustedes, los vivos frames a philosophical space and invites us to let our thoughts ramble on our condition as temporary entities and on existence itself.
Note: The text above was written by the Artist. No modification was made by COCA.
DAVID HORNILLOS
Spain
David Hornillos (Madrid, 1974). He has been awarded the ARCO 2013 Documentary Photography Award. He has participated in various exhibitions such as “Books that are photos, photos that are books” at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (Madrid); “P2P Contemporary Practices of Spanish Photography” (Photoespaña 2014); Lanzadera, 2015, CentroCentro Madrid ; Circulations 2016, Centquatre, Paris; Wuhan Art Museum, Wuhan (China); “Photography & Resistance. A New Generation of Spanish Photographers ”, FOMU, Antwerp. Belgium; “Blank Paper, Histories du présent immédiat”, Reencontres de Arles 2017, Arles, France and Xiamen. China. His first book, Mediodia (Dalpine), published in 2014, was nominated for the Photobook Award Kassel 2014 Best Book of the Year and the First Book Award MACK 2014. His second book "Ustedes, los vivos" (Dalpine), published in 2018, was finalist for The Rencontres d'Arles Prix du livre 2019 and finalist of the Best Book of the Year PhotoEspaña 2019.