The Origin of the World

Gonzalo Borondo moved to Madrid in 2003, where he strengthened his relationship with graffiti some years after he started visiting the studio of Jose Garcia Herranz. There, he discovered the pleasure of experimenting with different techniques and studied the old masters of painting. At 18, he participated in his first art festival in Istanbul and has since done solo exhibitions in Rome, Madrid, Paris, and London, and can be found across the public spaces of Europe, his favourite gallery.

Responding to the maternity hospital across the road, this piece is Borondo’s take on the famous painting of the same title by Gustave Courbet. He uses the open arch in the middle of the wall and the tree which inhabits it as a metaphor for origin — a river, the source of life, flows through the arch into infinity and a boat that reflects the journey of life. Borondo regards this entire scene as synonymous with the birth of a child, who has to pass through a mother's womb to begin its journey. This painted perspective seems abstract when viewed up close, but it reveals itself when observed from a distance, exactly like life.