VHILS

Portugal (1987)
Biennale Images Vevey
2012
Scratching the Surface

Invited by Images Vevey, VHILS engraved René Burri’s famous 1963 portrait of Che Guevara on-site during the Révolution à vendre exhibition. For his Scratching the Surface project, this street artist uses a pneumatic hammer to dig into the successive layers of the wall to reveal the Argentinian revolutionary’s features ‘in negative’, using the different layers of paint, plaster and brick to nuance the image. Exhibited in a disused supermarket, the photographic nature of this piece freed it from the usual constraints of the medium, while reminding us of its lasting imprint.