You couldn’t tell if a selfies or just watched a batch of penalties of the Spanish team: stays dead in one click. It is already thrown to the ground with more ease than an extra ‘CSI‘. 15 years ago this barcelonian kick the bucket around the world with a postcard background. His looks like the Instagram of ‘This dead man is very much alive’. “I am an aging corpse & rdquor;he summarizes. He has died on camera on five continents. 35 countries. From the acropolis of greece until the Chichen Itza pyramid. More of 250 iconic places total. There is no doubt that she has passed away.
“I’m sorry to burden you with this dead man & rdquor ;, he apologizes when he introduces himself. “Enric Godes Dead& rdquor ;, you save it in your contacts. The eldest of his two sons already makes cold cuts with ease. 51 years. He is a computer engineer, a partner in a design agency and a obsessed with lists. He has traced his family tree back to the year 1200. “I have many obsessions & rdquor ;, he shrugs. That means that the same thing does a Hombre de Hierro that fixes a Porsche 911 from 88.
‘Travel kills me’, the project is called. “Traveling kills me & rdquor;. Compulsive tourism with crime novel format. “It is something that is very iconic –explains its protagonist-, that you have seen it represented many times & rdquor ;. Christ the redeemer from Rio, the Eiffel Towerthe wailing wall. And suddenly there is something disruptive there” But what’s wrong with that man?
He is already used to being looked at with the mouth plus open than when reading Rajoy’s sports columns. “The people who travels He hates me with me –he laughs-. I make them part of me obsession”.
It all started as a joke back in 2007. Enric was with his partner in New York and one day, walking by center park, his partner told him: “Take a picture lying on the ground & rdquor ;. “Whoa,” Enric thought, “it’s a terrific idea.” He posted a couple of photos on Facebook, his friends found it funny, and he began to throw himself on the ground on every trip. He already accumulates about 300 photos (he has 40 to publish). He hangs them on Facebook, instagrameven has a Map marked with skulls on your website. “Now I can’t stop it anymore & rdquor ;, she confesses. The project unites his passion for traveling, she says, and his need to finish everything he starts.
It has bitten the dust in all its formats: dirt, asphalt, ice, beaches with palm trees… “Rain too, yes, yes. In the end… It is the least important thing – it is less important. It’s the same if you stain a little.” That is an understatement. In Morocco he posed on the ground among snakes.
It’s not the only one. Play dead for the world has become a global trend. The artist Stephanie Leigh Rose already has until ‘merchandising‘ with her cadaverous pose upside down and lifeless hair like a girl from ‘The Ring’. A few months ago she was on the ground in the Plaza Reial.
It is @stefdies on Instagram (more than 91,000 followers). It went viral in 2019. His has traces of ‘performance‘: she created the “anti selfie movement”. His photos, he summarizes on his website, are “a reaction to the selfie culture & rdquor; and “a reminder to live for more than just getting that perfect photo”. “His approach is much more artistic& rdquor ;, agrees Enric. In both cases, by now there is already hordes of tourists who imitate both of them.
Why is he playing dead? “Because I found it very boring to take the same photo of the Sydney Opera House. there is that flash point. Look for a different approach & rdquor ;. Its objective? Get attention, yes. “But also communicate -reply-. explain interesting sites”. It is a project withdidactic component”. Each image includes information text and photo gallery without cold cuts. “But it’s just a travel photo says Enric. When you finish the photo, continue my journey.”
He is not the first to expand through the networks either unusual travel postcards. Since the phenomenon of dancing matta decade ago, who went viral dancing around the world (wherethehellismatt) until movement ‘follow me‘, who invented that couple who walked around the world hand in hand. “I think that in the end it is because of exhaustion Justifies Enric. For looking for something that is different & rdquor ;.
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Enric must be the person they ask the most What happens. “It depends on the country,” he says. In Asia they ask a lot. In South America, less. Sometimes they tell me off & rdquor ;. In Japan, in the crowded shibuya crosswalk, for example, they took the photo from a hotel, so he played dead with no camera in sight. “I was on the ground for 4 or 5 seconds and I already had 6 people asking me what was wrong with me & rdquor ;, he recalls. “I did the same in Bogotá and they ignored me & rdquor ;. They will hardly have asked 15 times out of 250 that the stiff has been made. “Many people already see that I am taking a photo,” he excuses them. There is still hope in society & rdquor ;, she laughs.
Joan Miró Park. Enric circles -mobile in hand- the sculpture with a little lake of ‘Donate i ocell‘. He doesn’t usually take photos in Barcelona, but you told him that you die for taking a selfie with him. He takes his time. “The click lasts a minute,” he warns you. The preparation of the photo can be 10, 20 minutes, an hour, a day.” Go back to Wikipedia, check all the possible angles. He is imagining where he can leave a couple of cold cuts. Suddenly he lets out an enigmatic giggle like a serial killer: “Maybe put your head in the water? & rdquor ;. You go pale. That goes well for the photo. In the end, you dodge the water, you lie face down, one arm dangling, the glasses a la virulé, click, click, click. Yes, you smile like “pa-ta-ta& rdquor; unintentionally. There are still 4 or 5 hours of post-production left: retouching and documentation. “Are travel photographs Enric shrugged. They are not photographs of death & rdquor ;.