The Kiss

THE KISS

This piece marked a turning point for me; it was the first piece to reach a large audience, cross borders, and go viral.
The idea came about through the famous kiss that Luis Rubiales gave Jenni Hermoso during the celebration of the Women’s World Cup.

That episode caused a lot of criticism and a tremendous stir in Spain; it was all anyone was talking about at that moment, so I found the opportunity to follow the current affairs and transform all that hatred and tension that was being generated.

I started thinking about non-consensual kisses and studied the best way to carry out a social experiment to see how society would react to seeing a person inviting them to give a kiss, a “peck.”

The first image that came to my mind was the one I carried out: a classic man, the kind with a side parting, a checkered shirt, and shiny shoes, with a red blindfold and a bouquet of flowers on his back.

An apparently very simple but visually attractive composition with a very powerful magnetism and romanticism that was going to immediately stop people.

The red blindfold represents blind love; it doesn’t matter what type of person is placed on the wall, it’s a look into the soul, focusing more deeply on how exciting and fun a blind kiss can be and enjoying the pleasure of the moment.

The bouquet of flowers is generosity, surprise, attention, and courtesy.
The inclination and the firm, straight position of the legs is elegant and very careful; it shows education, respect, chivalry, and good manners.

But where almost all the attention is focused is on the position of his lips, since the movement of the kiss had to be completely defined and placed right on the edge of the corner so that magic would be born.
I made sure that the gesture of the pout would have to be interpreted as a kiss the second you saw it.

Finally, one of the most complex and important parts of the intervention was finding the perfect location; it had to be a very narrow alley to have a much better chance of people stopping and interacting.

After browsing through different corners on Google Earth, I found Malcuinat Street, N1, a very busy street that, curiously, connected and had beautiful views of the Cathedral of the Sea, so it was ideal for framing the photo. That’s when I realized that nothing could go wrong; it was the best corner in the neighborhood to execute it.

All of this automatically made all the people who passed by that street start kissing the wall and taking photos to the point of becoming a tourist attraction.

To this day, I still think that the planets aligned with that work.

Locations:

Barcelona / 2023
Madrid / 2025
Tenerife / 2024
Dubrovnik / 2025

📷 @evapriego

News links:

https://www.elperiodico.com/es/barcelona/20240503/barcelona-mural-instagram-alberto-leon-101874342

https://www.canarias7.es/cultura/arte/tinerfeno-alberto-leon-revoluciona-born-barcelones-beso-20230909230558-nt.html?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

https://www.timeout.es/barcelona/es/noticias/el-graffiti-cerca-de-santa-maria-del-mar-que-hara-que-lo-petes-en-las-redes-050224