Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider is a project that fuses the spirit of the original protagonist of Marvel comics in the 1970s with classic literature – Goethe’s Faust – and the eponymous protopunk epic composed by the band Suicide in 1977, extending its lore in a bootleg that presents the archetype of the millennial man – young and precarious – through the figure of a skateboarder and questions of hauntology and demonology. Using video capsules that combine the genre of skating videos and video essays, we narrate the curse that weighs upon our protagonist – eternal youth – which is linked to the ironic twist pertaining to the literal mentality of demonic pacts in which the operability of the magical/demonic serves the textuality of words. When it comes to our character – and the millennial majority – the desire to remain forever young concerns the failure to resolve life favourably towards the adult phase.
The ‘Ghost Rider’ song penned by the band Suicide in 1977 is an ode to the eponymous Marvel Comics character, extending his narrative canon. The bootleg – or pirated copy, unofficial version – is a medium that enables us to magnify the exegetical potential of a character, in our case also turning him into a figure analogous to Goethe’s Faust.
We transpose the figure of Ghost Rider from the 1970s to the present day in order to reveal the archetype of the millennial man through the Skater: the current reincarnation of the precarious Rider. Combining the genre of skating videos and video essays, we narrate the curse that weighs upon our protagonist – eternal youth – which is linked to the ironic twist pertaining to the literal mentality of demonic pacts in which the operability of the magical/demonic serves the textuality of words. When it comes to our character – and the millennial majority – the desire to remain forever young concerns the failure to resolve life favourably towards the adult phase.
Joan Pallé (Lleida, 1989) & Cayetano Truyols (Mallorca, 1994)
Joan Pallé has a Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona and a Master from the Institut Art Gender Nature, HGK, Basel. He has exhibited in ADN Galería, Kuntshaus Baselland, Galería Fran Reus and La Panera, among others.
Cayetano has a Degree in Fine Arts and a Master in Artistic Research, both from University of Barcelona. He has exhibited in spaces such as Espai Zero (Fabra i Coats), Sala d’Art Jove and ACUD Gallery (Berlin) among others.