Colombian artist Pablo Bermudez distorts our perception of the world through his use of the three dimensional collage, breaking our desire for conformity through the images we consume in the everyday. Globally connected through our passive consumption of propaganda, Bermudez’s subverting of advertising images leads us to question our direct connection to the corporate world. We are left with this exposure to the underlying message - how do you peer behind the veil of propaganda?

Subverting the message, carving at the image, scalpel in hand, an enlightened world is discovered - one in which we can question what we accept as truth.

The collective is always at the forefront of Bermudez’s work, whether a criticism of collective control or a celebration of interconnectivity, something distinctly a part of the digital age.

Your art often subverts the original message of the piece. Do you find it important to see the disturbing side of all beauty?

I operate on images that are part of accepted global aesthetics. I focus on the act of sabotaging the message in those images that were originally conceived as part of mass marketing campaigns under that assumed aesthetic.

Why do you think it is important to subvert advertising messages?

In order to reveal “the hidden persuaders”, to quote Vance Packard.

“CONFORM - CONSUME - REPRODUCE and OBEY” are some of the signs that John Nada sees in the 80s’ dystopian Los Angeles of John Carpenter’s “They Live”. In this movie, advertising is the strongest weapon of consumerism. In another movie by Jamie Bradshaw and Aleksandr Dulerayn, “Branded”, we see the transformation from soviet propaganda to capitalist advertising.

I’m deeply interested in understanding the techniques that multinational corporations use and its influence and rapport with art, as well as its impact in our everyday lives.

Can you explain the process of ‘sottovuoto’ that you use in your work? Why do you find it important to manipulate images in this way?

‘Sottovuoto’ (vacuum) is connected to a study of anatomical aesthetics and human perception.

By adding an additional layer of plastic over the human skin and by removing the oxygen, we preserve it at the cost of deforming it. This plastic vacuum represents the social mask we accept to wear in our highly individualistic and narcissistic society.

You are originally from Pereira, Columbia and have lived in both Barcelona, Spain and Como, Italy. How has your background and surroundings influenced your artwork?

Travel is fundamental for a deeper grasp of the present and the past. The strongest influence in this sense came from my experience in the Philippines. Living in the Philippines helped me to better understand the dynamics connected to Spanish colonialism and its influences in both South America and SouthEast Asia’s former colonies. Since then, I feel I have experienced greater freedom in artistic expression.

You started the Puzzle Project in 2011. Has this project reached its hypothetical end? Do you think it's important for the viewer to reach their own idea of the end image?

Not yet. Especially because I still have to start distributing it. The most interesting part of the project is in fact the uncertainty that comes from it -- and the fact that the spectator can then suddenly realize to be part of a global network of interconnected connections.

The end image of the Puzzle Project and the location of the Multipack Gallery are both secret. Why is the concept of secrets important to you?

‘Secrecy’ is a temporal tool: since we are so used to immediate consumption, secrecy forbids a work to be consumed ahead of its natural life-cycle.

The Multipack Gallery is stated to be intrinsically linked with the work that it displays. Do you often find your surroundings intertwining with your work and vice versa?

We will share details about Multipack very soon, although I can already anticipate that the Multipack Gallery project has been acquired by Rossana Cioca, a well-known gallerist and co-founder of ArtCityLab. in Milan.

Multipak has been created by the architect Lorenzo Guzzini as a sculpture in a real space, and I am glad to start this collaboration with Rossana as the Art Director of this project.

Your collective show ‘Finding Proximity’ explored the process of art’s fulfilment of attachment and connection. Has an online connection in the last year influenced your work?

Modeka Art, the gallery that hosted the show ‘Finding Proximity’ (curated by Gwen Bautista) is one of the main galleries I work with in Manila, Philippines. We initially met online and I had a great connection with them: Riccardo Corsini - one of the gallery founders, is Italian, and we immediately experienced a strong cultural kinship; with Bubbles Bermudez, also a founder of the gallery, we share the same last name while being born on the opposite side of the World. I jokingly call her ‘prima’ (cousin).

Socials are a fundamental tool for my research, and a good example of it is the @art_fabrique project. This said, I believe that the most important connections in my life came from syncretism and direct encounters.

The layering of your designs to create a 3D image of the magazine seems to open up an invitation into another world. Has this element of the ‘other’ been a focus in your work?

The literal explosion of the magazines is there to subvert the way printed pages are normally experienced, which is one at the time. By ‘opening them up’, the spectator not only gets to see them all from a single point perspective, but it also changes the original message and creates new meaning through a destructive/re-constructive effort.

What does the future hold for you?

I’m hoping to visit Manila and my friends again soon. Other than that, I’m planning a trip to Los Angeles in 2022; I have recently started collaborating with a dear friend who is based there. Thanks to her, several collectors connected to the cinema industry have purchased my work; one of them is David Goyer, a very well-known filmmaker, novelist and comic book writer. I’m looking forward to meet him and to ask everything about Batman and Terminator.