“Memory, and its loss, are a central theme in my work. Unless we remember, we are condemned to an amnesiac present, textureless and flat, lacking the perspective of time.

My recent artwork tackles such issues in different ways. I have scoured junkyards, recycling centers and flea markets, looking for examples of aging technologies that defined our existence in the not-so-distant past. What we throw away holds an accurate portrait of who we were. VHS tapes, 35 mm film, hard discs, CDs, to name just a few obsolete mediums that I have used in my art, are all depositories of our memories. When tossing them out, we are also discarding an important part of ourselves. By projecting video animations onto old media, I attempt to reignite life back into them so as to reveal the shared memory they hold within.

I have also projected large-scale video animations on emblematic monuments and historic buildings in cities across the globe. I contact local communities and create events that allow participants to project themselves literally, and metaphorically, onto their surroundings. In this way they claim the history of their city as their own. Using green-screen technology, I often record performers acting out climbing motions that when projected onto a building’s façade, create the illusion of their ascent to the top. By “conquering” these buildings, they become active participants of a shared history, rather than mere spectators of an urban reality.

I like to break away from the confines of the flat screen and create three-dimensional installations that conceptualize media as sculpture. My LED screens are clear examples of this approach. After years of research, I have developed a flexible LED tile that allows me to create screens with complex curving shapes. Thus, I can make screens that bend and twist and respond to the specific features of the architecture that contains them. These works invite viewers to seek out multiple perspectives in discovering the artwork, incorporating their movements in and around the work as a crucial component of their experience. To be a spectator all too often means to remain on the sidelines of what we are watching. I want my artwork to activate an engaged viewer, one that experiences seeing as grounded in a moving sentient body. With this full-bodied gaze, I believe we not only have a richer experience of our world, but are also able to claim a place in it for ourselves.” Daniel Canogar

Born in Madrid (1964) to a Spanish father and an American mother, Daniel Canogar´s life and career have bridged between Spain and the U.S. Photography was his earliest medium of choice, receiving an M.A. from NYU at the International Center for photography in 1990, but he soon became interested in the possibilities of the projected image and installation art.

He has created numerous permanent public art installations with flexible LED screens including Pulse, at Zachry Engineering Education Complex Texas A&M University, Tendril, a permanent sculptural LED screen for Tampa International Airport; Waves, a permanent LEDs screen installed in 2 Houston Center atrium in Houston; Travesias, a sculptural LED screen commissioned for the atrium of the European Union Council in Brussels; Constelaciones, the largest photo-mosaic in Europe created for two pedestrian bridges over the Manzanares River, Madrid; and Asalto, a video-projection presented on various emblematic monuments including the Arcos de Lapa in Rio de Janeiro, Union Station in Toronto, Puerta de Alcalá in Madrid and the church of San Pietro in Montorio in Rome.

His recent work includes “Fluctuations” at Sala Alcalá 31, Madrid; Storming Times Square, screened on 47 of the LED billboards in Times Square, New York; “Echo”, a solo exhibition at bitforms, New York, and Max Estrella Gallery in  Madrid; Sikka Ingentium,  at Museo de la Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona; “Quadratura” at Espacio Fundación Telefónica de Lima; “Vórtices”, an exhibition exploring issues of water and sustainability at the Fundación Canal Isabel II in Madrid and Synaptic Passage, an installation commissioned for the exhibition “Brain: The Inside Story” at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

He has exhibited in the Reina Sofia Contemporary Art Museum, Madrid; the Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio; the Offenes Kulturhaus Center for Contemporary Art, Linz; the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfallen, Düsseldorf; Hamburger Banhof Museum, Berlin; Borusan Contemporary Museum, Istanbul; the American Museum of Natural History, New York; the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Mattress Factory Museum, Pittsburgh; the Palacio Velázquez, Madrid; Max Estrella Gallery, Madrid; bitforms gallery, New York; Art Bärtschi & Cie Gallery , Geneva; Eduardo Secci Contemporary, Florence; Helga de Alvear Gallery, Madrid; the Alejandro Otero Museum, Caracas and the Santa Mónica Art Center, Barcelona.

He has published “Ciudades Efímeras: Exposiciones Universales, Espectáculo y Tecnología”, Julio Ollero Editor, Madrid, 1992; “Ingrávidos”, Fundación Telefónica, Madrid, 2003; and several architecture and image, contemporary photography, and new media art essays.