This is Swiss artist Raphael Bottazzini’s latest work: Pedro Pascal, John McClane (2025). The work consists of two yellow fabric panels, each about 315 inches long and 59 inches wide, sewn together lengthwise. The seam creates a connection between two independent surfaces that merge into a single body. On the surface appear the names “Pedro Pascal” and “John McClane.” Both figures come from different cultural eras and represent different notions of masculine identity. John McClane represented the expanded hero of the 1980s. Pedro Pascal forms a transition to the contemporary, constructed man/hero — a construct that today stabilizes itself through emotion and vulnerability.

Raphael Bottazzini: Pedro Pascal, John McClane (2025). Painting (Expectation Painting). Acrylic paint on cotton fabric & sewing machine. 315 × 118 in. In Public – Basel, Switzerland, November 8, 2025. Video: Nico Schmied

Raphael Bottazzini: Pedro Pascal, John McClane. Basel (Switzerland), November 8, 2025.