The wait for what was supposed to be the continuation of one of the best photography festivals ever created worldwide has been long. Covid-19 arrived and the world situation changed completely, and in our role as promoters of a contemporary photography we lived in the flesh how difficult it has been to survive.
During this year we have maintained constant communication with the organizers of the International Festival on Experimental Photography and we have closely watched the preparations for the event that began yesterday with the opening of two major exhibitions. We are sure that the efforts of all parties involved will make this edition of the festival, apart from being experimental in absolutely every way, a tremendous event, where the strength and the passion of the photographers delivers photographic projects as intelligent as the festival itself.
Barcelona is the epicenter of universal photography this week, and if you live in this city or are passing through, it’s a must to attend.
Many of the brains of instant format are visiting the city, with two exhibitions being inaugurated tonight, where you can see much of their work live.
It goes without saying that the protocols to provide the safety of all attendees have been measured with the utmost rigor, with the intention that everyone enjoys this festival in a way that it can be celebrated without any inconvenience.
Se ha hecho larga la espera de lo que se suponía iba a ser la continuación de uno de los mejores festivales de fotografía jamás creados a nivel mundial. Llegó el Covid-19 y la situación a nivel mundial cambió totalmente, y en nuestra faceta como promotores de la fotografía contemporánea hemos vivido en carne y hueso lo difícil que ha sido sobrevivir.
Durante este año hemos mantenido constante comunicación con los organizadores del International Festival on Experimental Photography y hemos visto de cerca los preparativos para el evento que ha comenzado ayer con la inauguración de dos grandes exposiciones, y estamos seguros que todo el esfuerzo de todas las partes involucradas harán de esta edición un festival aparte de experimental en absolutamente todos los sentidos, un epicentro donde se mide la fortaleza de los fotógrafos y de la pasión que hace que se involucren al 100% en proyectos tan inteligentes como este festival.
Barcelona es el punto de encuentro de la fotografía universal esta semana, y si vivís en la ciudad o estáis de paso, no dudéis en acercaros con la curiosidad que emite el arte a apoyar este evento que reúne a las mentes mas inteligentes en su formato.
Obviamente tendremos la visita en la ciudad de muchos de los cerebros en nuestro formato instantáneo, y que esta noche inauguran dos exposiciones dónde se puede ver mucho de su trabajo en vivo.
No hace falta decir que los protocolos para proporcionar la seguridad de todos los asistentes han sido medidos con todo el máximo rigor, la intención es que todos disfruten de este festival de tal forma que se pueda celebrar sin ningún inconveniente.
Exhibitions:
Place: Espai de fotografia Francesc Català-Roca
Selected artists: Deneb Martos, Rosalie Anderson, Perez Naroa, Debora de Canio, Yuhan Shen, and Louise Coates.
Abstract: When Odysseus returns to Ithaca, he goes unnoticed by changing his appearance to that of a ragged man. The only person who recognizes him is his nurse and it is not because of his gaze, it is because of a scar when he traces his hand over the skin, a trace of the past, a surface that registers a memory activated by touch. Like the image, here the memory is born by contact.
The first to distinguish it is his old dog Argos. Just as he went beyond appearances, this proposal invites to think the image outside of mimesis, to move away from ocularcentrism and projective analogy, and to decentre the gaze where light and time shape the photographic image.
This site-specific project is proposed as an immersive experience, an ephemeral installation in the Espai de Fotografia Francesc Catalá-Roca with the intention of getting closer to the essence and origin of the image, questioning the production, consumption and circulation of contemporary visualities. It is an invitation to rethink the place where we make sense of images at a time when photography seems to settle in a search for omnipresence and sharpness.
Imagen: Debora De Canio – Where Am I from?
Place: Institut d’Estudis Fotogràfics de Catalunya
Abstract: We might think on our media-saturated living as a sign of the digital times but we should yet consider ourselves in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Photo albums became popular as a consumer extension of the film and photography industry becoming as well the graphical emotive memory support for generations. Now the archives have become public in an excess of EXHIBITION but the method by which the modern self beholds itself still consists on iconic accumulation and visual self-attraction. Albums still keep the record of us in the flux of time and change, gathering together communities and experiences without any artistic pretension.
This project rethinks on topics like memory, community and representation trying to throw some light on how the digital and the physical are only distinct but related technologies for the conscious soul to regard itself as a continuum of inter-linked images.
- Our Wet Memories curated by Nanako Liu (Taiwan)
Place: Institut d’Estudis Fotogràfics de Catalunya
Selected artists: Sabine Skodda, Mathilde Salsi, Sara Bensaltana, Heather Palecek, Carlos Baselga, Paula Dornan, Agata Tomasiewicz, and Fanny Genty.
Abstract: “All Memories are traces of tears” 2046, Wong Kar-Wai
We put selected photo prints into a water tank with a bobble machine and detergent. After 15 days, those photo prints become auto-destructive art. The issue I want to discuss is: how could we hold a memory forever? Moments and memories will fade away, even if we took a photo and tried hard to keep it. Even if all memories disappeared in the end, we could use a poetic phantom to remember them.
Place: Cercle Artístic Sant Lluc
Selected artists: Alba Albet, Alessia Amati, Estefi Brussa, Jordi Bofill Cunillera, Irina Chernikova, Gaspard Comte, Seckin Erel, José de la Torre Guibert, Ina Echternach, Flora Fanzutti, Dani Fejer, Noemi Heidel, Robert Greco, Isabel Herrera, Pedro Venturo, Alexandros Kantoros, Kasia Kozinska, Eliza Kędzierska, Fabian Kochendoerfer, Lucy Onzon, Felicita Russo, Lena Storjohann, Marjolaine Vuarnesson, Ana Valenzuela y Célica Veliz.
Abstract curator: Our night journeys, and midnight adventures of the mind, take us to places and worlds that exist in tandem to the waking world and come to us in dreams. These night journeys have captivated us for generations and led to much debate, theory, and speculation.
Carl Jung claimed that “The dream is the small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul”. Jung saw dreams as the psyche’s attempt to communicate important things to the individual and he also saw great art as like a dream. Marvel at a selection of images from international artists that create their own alternative worlds, accompanied by a selection of film shorts from various filmmakers such as Kenneth Anger and Derek Jarman.
Immerse yourself in Gisle Nataas, sound installation ‘Captures’. The sound installation is based on sounds around capturing moods and moments. The sounds are taken from a Leica M9 camera. The sounds are divided, processed and reassembled in new ways and use the entire exhibition space in its display.
Place: Valid Foto BCN
Selected artists: Jessy Boon Cowler, Emilie Poiret Brown, Nettie Edwards, Cristina Fontsare, Liz Harrington,Poppy Lekner, Ky Lewis, Anna Luk, Sonia Mangiapane, Megan Ringrose, Erika G Santos, Kateryna Snizhko, and Lauren Spencer.
Abstract: Women photographic artists from all over the world answered a call out run by Ellen Carey, experimental artist, and Hundred Heroines a U.K. based platform whose focus is a global organisation showcasing women in photography. “Light’s immateriality challenges its makers today, analog versus digital doubles our challenges. It is here, in modern and contemporary art, that one finds a “linked ring” to characteristics within the DNA of photography – science, optics, shadow, reflection, silhouette, process, chemistry – that today’s practitioners underscore in their concepts, enriching content, adding context, citing this history at the dawn of medium to now in their versions of drawing with light.” Ellen Carey