MARCO, the Contemporary Art Museum of Vigo, is hosting the exhibition ID Project – Jordi Bernadó. Banco Sabadell Art Collection from 2 February to 26 May.

Activists, science and literary personalities, Nobel Prize winners and other celebrities are featured in ID Project by Jordi Bernadó (Lleida, Spain, 1966), through which the artist explores the essence of human identity, that which supposedly makes us unique. They are portraits of great contemporary personalities, famous for their commitment to human rights, creation, science, ecology or freedom of expression. But there is a unique aspect to it: their backs are turned to the camera; there is no way of knowing whether they are them or not. This tension between being a celebrity and being anonymous is a pretext for a sharp reflection on identity, memory and the importance of belonging to a place.

ID Project brings together 14 photographs that are an approach to the genre of portraiture. Those featured are great modern-day personalities, famous for their commitment in various fields of science, the arts, research and human rights.

ID Project is an open project, which was first presented at the National Art Museum of Catalonia in the summer of 2022. Since then, it has continued to expand and itinerate as an exhibition, thanks to the collaboration of the Banco Sabadell Art Collection, owner of all the works that make up this project.

The photographs are subject to two conditions. First, each participant must choose the place to be photographed. It could not be just any place, rather it had to be “their place in the world”. Second, the artist asks them to turn their backs to the camera. It is not their faces that are captivating, but rather their absence. An absent face in a beloved place.