Isaac Cordal

Early life

Cordal was born in 1974 in Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain. He studied at the University of Fine Arts Pontevedra, degree in sculpture. He studied for five years at the School of Canteiros Pontevedra, a school dedicated to the conservation of stone crafts. He also trained at Camberwell College of Arts in London. Isaac Cordal was a founding member of Alg-a.org, digital art community from Galicia. He was part of the artistic collective Ludd34560 and Sr. Pause. He was an active member of the death metal scene in Spain, publishing the fanzine Exorcism and playing guitar in the band Dismal (1992-1998).

Artistic career

Cement Eclipses is one of his best known projects consisting of small cement sculptures photographed in urban space. His figures can be found pasted on top of bus shelters, walls, cornices ... by its small size (approximately 15 cm) is necessary to pay much attention to find them. The sculptures serve for the artist as a metaphor to reflect on politics, bureaucracy, power … They are presented in various absurd situations in urban space. His work can be seen both in galleries and urban space. Small nomadic sculptures have been seen in cities like Brussels, London, Berlin, Zagreb, Nantes, San Jose, Barcelona, Vienna, Malmo, Paris, Milan, Bogotá. His work is a critical reflection on the idea of progress, of human misery, climate change and the gradual devaluation of our existence among others topics. Small sculptures represent primarily a social stereotype apparently next to businessman dressed in suit jacket and middle-aged, briefcases, timeless beings, as the gray men of Momo by Michael Ende.

Le Voyage a Nantes - Follow the leader

This was a massive installation presented in the summer of 2013 for Le voyage to Nantes edition, located in Plaza du Boffay, one of the most central of Nantes. The measurement of the installation was of approximately 20 ms x 20 ms and was composed by some 2000 figures and buildings of cement on scale semi destroyed. The installation was a kind of city in ruins.

In a 2012 interview with Agenda Magazine, Cordal explains:

Our gaze is so strongly focused on beautiful, large things, whereas the city also contains zones that have the potential to be beautiful, or that were really beautiful in the past, which we overlook. I find it really interesting to go looking for those very places and via small-scale interventions to develop a different way of looking at our behaviour as a social mass.”

Waiting For Climate Change

In various projects Isaac Cordal has shown interest in topics related to climate change. During the triennal Beaufort04 he presented a series of sculptures on the top of a few poles representing individuals with float waiting for climate change. An ironic proposal to reflect on our ineffectiveness with the degradation of the planet. During Le Voyage to Nantes, in summer 2013, he presented in the moat of the castle of the Dukes of Brittany a floating life-size sculptures. Businessmen represented as a kind of cast adrift.

Politicians Discussing Global Warming

This image of an installation performed by Isaac Cordal in Berlin in 2011 became viral on the internet under the title Politicians discussing global warming although really is part of its series called follow the leaders.

Cement Bleak Project

Sculptures are made with metal grille with the intention of projecting shadows. One of his best-known projects is Cement bleak, urban installation held in London in 2009 with strainers modeled in the shape of the face and that they were projecting their shadow with the lights of the public lighting