If you are religious, probably at some point of your life you have been told that only God can create, that the universe was generated from nothing and, from there, everything else cascaded upon us. In these types of discussions then, sometimes an enlightened person admits that perhaps artists are also creators: to create in fact is not just a matter of combining colors, adding or removing matter, but something much more complex and extraordinary — is the result of the uniqueness of the author’s journey on earth. 

That makes the creative process something unique that we could imagine as a mosaic of cards that can be assembled in infinite ways, depending on the mood, the experiences, the context in which one finds them available. 

On the occasion of «Genesis» at the Crack Kids Gallery in Lisbon Alonso Alcalde proposes a cycle of unpublished works — three of which done together with Edward Nightingale and signed as Al Night — which represent the hic et nunc of his artistic path, long and adventurous journeys where train bombing is the fil rouge and in which photography, documentation, calligraphy,  painting, and collage are the alphabet of the language that Alonso uses to show himself to contemporary art lovers. 

This is a path that the artist felt the need, and had the opportunity, to analyze during the oppressive months of lockdown, when traveling was both inadvisable and difficult. An unprecedented
situation for a tireless Patiperro who has always been accustomed to finding stimuli and energy from infinite trips and encounters:
a limitation that the artist was able to transform into a unique opportunity, employing a seemingly empty and eternal timeline
to reflect on the Genesis of his work and creation. 

Where does this expressive urgency arise? One that does not
aim to collect systems or accumulate material riches, and does not stop in front of shifting conventions like laws and borders?
The answer to the questions that the artist faced during these
moments of reflection is certainly not unique: if on the one
hand there is certainly friendship: the foundation of the
relationship with Ed Night as well as many of the adventures
that give birth to the Patiperro cycle, including train bombing as
a totalizing lifestyle.  

On the other hand, perhaps the answer is to be sought else-
where: in the artist’s very concept of life, a fleeting moment
where everything is in perpetual movement and transformation,
where people inspire and contaminate each other, mesh styles and techniques, and give individual paths a meaning through
participation in a community. 

The collaborations with other artists create synergies — the
collages that transform printing tests otherwise intended to be thrown away into unique pieces full of expressive strength,
unstructured and recomposed photos that capture memories of
a lifetime acquiring new forms and dynamism, the flow of a
lettering style developed on trains and lent to the gallery, and
the wild spots of color that give new compositional balance to
the works — are all elements that form part of the bigger picture.

Pietro Rivasi
Independent curator