3x4=ORAIN.
The photobook is more than a book made up of photographs. It is an artistic object where the images lose their autonomous character to become structured in a sequence of contents, with a narrative intention and a unique visual rhythm that builds a singular and unrepeatable creative discourse in a different format. The growing interest in the photobook, understood as an artistic work in itself, is undergoing a significant expan- sion, backed by the numerous national and international events dedicated to its analysis and significance. In this context, digitisation and accessibility to the means of production have had an expansive effect on the publication of new titles. More titles than ever are produced, read and collected, and today the photobook constitutes a singular, contemporary and immediate artistic genre.
As a result of this effervescence, the project 3x4=ORAIN. Cinema, music and literature in the photobook deepens the study and knowledge of the Gabriela Cendoya Bergareche Collection through its analysis from the fields of cinema, music and literature, three disciplines that main- tain a deep link with these editions.
Understanding cinema as the observation of an event inserted in the flow of time1 allows us to understand the key influence of this discipline in the way of concei- ving and interpreting a photobook. Following this logic, the photographs become cinematographic shots that are sequenced to be visualised in time and space.
The construction of the sequence of photographs in these books pays special attention to rhythm and is very close to musical structure, in which logical interpretation is not as important as the play of the emotions con- veyed. In the photobook, the images are edited based on aspects such as colour, tone or form to build a uni- tary work that, like music, must be interpreted. The action of turning the pages thus builds the rhythm of each work at the very moment of being contemplated. Each photobook acquires a duration, a particular meaning in the hands of each reader, turning each reading into a personal and unique journey.
The photographs that make up the sequence of the book are ordered with a single intention: to build a narrative to be interpreted. This succession of images often makes use of literary forms, such as ellipses or metaphors, to relate complex facts through an open visual rhetoric which is subject to multiple readings. ‘The images’, according to Ana Garralón, ‘should be considered visual texts, since they repre- sent elements that orchestrate them and give them an aesthetic sense.’ 2
This project comes from the selection of 12 historical and contemporary photobooks which have been offered to the same number of artists, four artists from each of the three disciplines, so that they can offer their analysis and share their views. The exhibition is completed with 18 additional publications, which results in a plural and diverse approach to this reality, linking cine- ma, music and literature with photography and books.
JON CAZENAVE.
CURATOR OF THE EXHIBITION
LA NUU,
Una exposició temporal a peu
de carrer
Al llarg de tot un mes, diverses instal·lacions fotogràfiques de gran format romandran exposades a la vista de tothom. Les façanes dels edificis i les places de la ciutat es converteixen, així, en un museu a peu de carrer. La principal estratègia del festival és l’ocupació de l’espai públic per tal de despertar la complicitat emocional dels ciutadans i les ciutadanes. La tipologia expositiva del festival La Nuu, al costat de la seva voluntat pedagògica, imposen límits a l’hora de la selecció de les peces i els fotògrafs, però, també el sostreuen del perill de créixer d’esquenes a la ciutat. Aquesta edició omplirà de nou la ciutat de fotografia contemporània per oferir-la sense cap tipus de barrera. Visitants i ciutadans es convertiran en espectadors voluntaris i involuntaris a la Plaça de la Nova Estació, la Plaça d’Anselm Clavé, la Plaça del Dr. Guardiet, la zona de l’Escardívol, la Biblioteca Municipal Martí Taulell i al Celler .
Paper Landscapes
Territorios de papel: un viaje a traves de fotolibros (Paper landscapes: a journey through photobooks) is an exhibition that takes us on a journey, around Catalonia mainly, through photobooks. These photobooks are mostly contemporary, but some more historical ones, photobooks that started to establish Barcelona's image in the 1960s, are also revisited.
Barcelona is the starting point for this journey that will take us to its outlying districts, the Costa Brava, the coastline to the south, inland and finally leaving from the north, beyond its borders, into a cosmological space.
A journey and a story counted in kilometres as we go, the odometer indicating the presence of certain publications as we travel through the landscape. The photobooks can be consulted in the following pages of the exhibition, grouped according to the distances it counts.
Each photobook can be seen through videos or other resources that make the immediate experience of the book more generally accessible. There is also a brief technical description and an explanatory text, either by the authors themselves, or by other associated colleagues, but present within the definition of the world of books.
I wish you a good journey through these paper landscapes as you loose yourself amongst the pages of time.
PEDRO TORRES
Barcelona, 1964. The shadow of the obelisk marks the hour. I am dazzled by the light but carry on walking down. I cross some cobbled streets with passing horses and carriages and the latest automobile models. I'm in a rush to catch one of these double-decker busses that serve the city. It takes me through the wide main streets. I don't know where to get off, I'm enjoying the city's hustle and
HIBERTICER
Hiberticer is an artistic project that takes its lead from Catalunya Visió, a collection of books of photographs which featured the entire territory of Catalonia in 1967, with special focus on the reality of the day. Terra-lab.cat, awarded the 2016 Lluís Carulla Prize, was the collective brainchild of the photographer, designer and editor Ignasi López, the poet, essayist and peddler of ideas Vicenç Altaió, the graphic designer and professor Sergi Opisso, and the photographer, editor and teacher Román Yñán. In the words of Vicenç Altaió: “Terra-lab.cat brought to life the discussion and creation of the concept of landscape and territory, with a team of artists, thinkers and photographers all born before 1968. Landscape is a combination of representation, of transformation of experience and emotion. This is culture.”
The display on offer at the Can Mario Museum, one of several that make up this project, aims to refresh our view of territory and landscape by means of a dialogue between two photographers with extensive careers - Salvi Danés and Rita Puig-Serra - and the artist David Bestué who, on this occasion, acts as thinker and writer.
Blackcelona
La Galería Paula Alonso de Madrid presenta la exposición individual "Blackcelona" del artista Salvi Danés. En esta ocasión con la colaboración de la escritora Jenn Díaz. Blackcelona es un canto a la ciudad, a super aspecto morfológico más oscuro. La muestra está incluida en el festival PHotoEspaña.
“Vine a esta ciudad porque me dijeron que en esta ciudad vive mi padre. No lo encuentro, a menos que mi padre sea un padre sucio, puesto que esta ciudad es sucia de una suciedad impermeable —que no puede eliminarse. Vine a buscar a mi padre por orden de mi madre, pero aquí no hay nadie a quien yo pueda preguntar. Ésta es la ciudad áspera y tirana que me advirtieron, pero no les creí, por eso vine a buscar a mi padre y pienso que si de verdad mi padre hubiera venido aquí, se habría marchado tarde o temprano”./ Jenn Díaz.
Galería Paula Alonso. 'Blackcelona'. C/Lope de Vega 29. Madrid. PhotoEspaña.
Residence Wroclaw (AIR Wro)
AIR Wro es un programa de residencias artísticas cuyo objetivo es apoyar y promover las actividades de personas creadoras que trabajan en los ámbitos de la cultura y el arte interesadas en colaborar con comunidades locales y establecer relaciones culturales internacionales. El programa apoya a artistas que realicen proyectos sobre el concepto de identidad y cultura urbanas, ya que su fin último es promover la mediación y facilitar la búsqueda de buenas prácticas y soluciones para la ciudad moderna.
Transmontanus
El Festival Mirades del Baix Empordà. Museu de la Mediterrània.
El Museu de la Mediterrània es troba a l'edifici de Can Quintana, antiga casa pairal i edifici catalogat del segle XV, al municipi de Torroella de Montgrí (Girona). Va ser inaugurat com a tal l'any 2003 i està dedicat a el coneixement i difusió de la Mediterrània. Es tracta d'un museu interactiu i dinàmic, que no només ofereix una exposició permanent, també espais dedicats a l'art pictòric i contemporani. També acull exposicions temporals relacionades amb la temàtica del museu.
