Mats Bäcker + Javier Mariscal

“Raw Power" + Estudio Mariscal

Curator Nathalie Bèreau

Photography Exhibition + Design Installation / 5th April – 1st May 2014 – During the Festival Juagada a 3 Bandas

““A few days before meeting Iggy Pop, his friend Marc Bolan had died. When we arrived at the Hotel Plaza in Copenhagen, Iggy was sitting absorbed in a newspaper reading about Marc’s car accident. He looked up and said, “James Osterberg,” his real name… I was introduced to him immediately, and hearing my name Iggy looked at me with surprise and said: ‘Orson Welles?’ Although I was intimidated, I said “yeah.” Throughout the interview Iggy spoke of golf, which was a surprise, as he neither seemed nor acted like the wild rebel that we had hoped to interview.”

MONDO GALERIA, in collaboration with Nathalie Béreau and 6Mandel, presents for the first time in Spain an exhibition of photographs by Mats  Bäcker, the Swedish photographer recognized for his work in the Rock music scene of the 70s and 80s. Through his lens he has captured artists such as the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Grace jones, and Joe Strummer, among others.

This exhibition is curated by Nathaelie Béreau, and is part of the new edition of JUGADA A 3 BANDAS, a festival that every year brings Galleries + Curators + Artists together.

Mats Bäcker (föd i Hagfors, 1958) is considered the best scene photographer in Scandinavia.

The images he created in the 70s and 80s portray the new wave of ideals and ways of living associated with rock music. His photos were influenced by his proximity to photography as a means of reportage. He was looking for a casual and sensual attitude, through black and white images. This is what Mats Bäcker wanted to demonstrate with iconic figures such as Iggy Pop and David Bowie.

Raw Power is a story about a unique moment in the history, focusing on Rock between 1977 and 1986.

Punk took Europe by storm and the Scandinavians were among the first to rise to the new wave of sound and fashion. The rock bands travelled to these parts of the world before punk was even established there. For example, the picture taken by Mats Bäcker of The Jam was on the band’s first tour outside Britain. Most of these photographs were published in rock magazine Schlager. This exhibition is the story of the meeting between Mats Bäcker and the artists who would change the history of music forever. Some of them have already died, but others continue to rock (almost) as if it were still that time.

The exhibition will also present Mats Bäcker’s book ‘Raw Power’ which includes, in addition to international artists, photographs of many dark bands of the time based in and around Stockholm. The book contains photographs of the Rolling Stones, Prince, Tina Turner, The Clash, Depeche Mode, James Brown, ABBA, Marianne Faithful, and many others.

The book ‘Raw Power’ can be purchased in either standard or limited edition, numbered and signed by the artist, containing a silver gelatin copy of the Iggy Pop photograph.

Mats Bäcker will be in Madrid for the opening of the exhibition and to give a lecture at the School of Art 10, Madrid.

The exhibition Raw Power will feature a design installation by Javier Mariscal & Studio Mariscal in which Studio Prototypes will be presented and operated directly by Javier Mariscal.

We find the contrast of these two important visual artists very interesting. The colour of Mariscal, in front of the black and white of Bäcker, which at first glance seem distant, have in their origins a certain burden of rebellion and discovery that invite us to continue with the dialogue between photography and design that we at MONDO GALERIA propose. The result? To be seen on-site

Javier Mariscal (Valencia, 1950) is first and foremost a creator of images, developing his work in all kinds of supports and disciplines. The design of furniture, interior design, graphic design, landscaping, painting, sculpture, illustration, web and multimedia design and animation are all the subject of his professional activity.

In his words, “My specialty is to be creative, innovative, to stretch the language, try to evolve codes, signs, graphic messages. To listen, to be a sponge, to observe, to capture images that society breathes, what we believe, that which excites us and the ideas that are changing. To achieve this I have used any system, language or discipline that I have had within my reach.”

Together with the Studio Mariscal team, which he founded in 1989, in recent years, among other works, he has been involved with the interior design and graphics of H&M Barcelona, the collection for the contract of Uno Design, Puerta América Madrid from the Hotels Silken group, the graphic image of the 32nd edition of the America’s Cup, the image and communication of Camper for Kids, the exhibition about his Mariscal Life Drawing at the Design Museum in London, the sculptural pergola for the hospital Río Hortega de Valladolid, two monographic publications: Mariscal Drawing Life and Sketches, the diffusion of the new law or the minor of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the retrospective exhibition Mariscal in La Pedrera. In 2010, the animated feature Chico and Rita has been released alongside Fernando Trueba, and the comic Chico and Rita, edited by Sinsentitdo, has been published. In 2011 he published, with the same editorial, the illustrated book Los Garriris.

He has collaborated with companies such as Memphis, Akaba, Bidasoa, BD Ediciiones de Diseño, Moroso, Nani Marquina, Vorwerk, Baggage, Alessi, Sangetsu, Magis, Cosmi, Amat3, Santa & Cole, Camper, The ConranShop, Lalique, Phaidon, Vondom, Uno Design, Magis, Leucos, Nemo Cassina, Mobles 114 and Artemide.

Mariscal expresses himself through a personal language, complex in his intention and simple in its manifestation, innocent and provocative at the same time, which serves him to innovate, to take risks and to communicate, to continue tickling the eyes that look as his work. It proposes a link with our Mediterranean culture, and it exposes a way of understanding our world and life.