11/08/20 - Some months ago, when Martín Di Girolamo (Argentina, 1965) was planning his exhibition at Galería Maman in Buenos Aires, he thought to call it Viral. The name referred to those images that went viral on social networks, since his sculptures were inspired by those global photos. Most of them pictured migrants and, to the artist, those movements around the world represented some kind of unstoppable virus. Paradoxically, Covid-19 erased that reference and the name was changed for Get out.

Martin Di Girolamo

Exhibition "Get out"

Martin Di Girolamo

Exhibition "Get out"

Martin Di Girolamo

Exhibition "Get out"

Martin Di Girolamo

Exhibition "Get out"

Although we remember each one of the photos that inspired these works, seeing the sculptures render them intolerable again, specially since most of them portray children. We see those that almost drowned trying to cross the river from Honduras to México and then to the US, or the young girl carried by two carabineros (that are missing) in a protest in Chile. Also the two girls who, together with their mother, escape the tear gases thrown by US Forces in the Mexican border, or the girl carrying her little brother in the middle of the wreckage of a bombing in Syria. 

Several of the sculptures are completely white, to avoid the distraction colors or details might cause, so we are basically overwhelmed by the suffering on display. He achieves, in this way, the same effect that with black and white photos: we understand the meaning of what is shown to us.

With impressive realism, thanks to its perfect making, the exhibition focuses on the objective proposed by the artist: children are always the most vulnerable.