Social Isolation, Isaac Cordal, and Neighbors (Sasiedzi) in Łódź

Brussels-based Spanish sculptor and street artist / public artist Isaac Cordal has just completed another poignant installation that speaks volumes to viewers, if they look up from their phones as they walk past.

His sad little men are customarily detached from a sense of hope, now stranded out on verandas that are attached to a bland, beige stucco wall. Many are mounted together at once, yet the effect is one of isolation, individuals banished to a vast disconnect.

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Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

“SĄSIEDZI” means “neighbors” in Polish, a name he chose for this installation for the, Łódź 4 Culture Festival in June. “Many years ago, I imagined a party full of people, where no one communicated with each other,” Isaac says as he relates that dream to the very genuine experience of riding a train today, or taking an elevator, or, yes, going to a party.

Those small niceties that strangers once exchanged in hallways or at the doctors office or at bus stops now evaporated – first by the Millenials who proudly taught everyone how to not make eye contact or say hello and to simply pound on keypads with thumbs, now it is a behavior embraced by all other age groups in every imaginable setting.

Do you know any of your neighbors? Why bother? Suurreeously. Like, why?

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Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

Cordal says his new installation isn’t just about our broken social fabric or our relationships with people – it is also about its additional extended impact; like disconnecting from daily physical life as if it pales in comparison to the digital experience.

“The installation is a reflection on our relationship with the outdoors due to the use of new technologies,’ he says. “The new modern outdoors is linked more with virtual spaces than with their physical counterparts. Never before have we been so connected yet at the same time been so isolated.”

Totes babe, BRB.

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Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

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Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

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Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

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Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

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Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

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Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

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Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

 

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