Fundación
Telefónica, the Cultural Institute of Barcelona and Lunwerg
Publishers present Open Maps. Latin-American Photography (1991 –
2002), an extensive anthology of current Latin-American photography,
with more than forty participating artists.
The exhibit,
which opens today in Madrid, will also open in Barcelona on Nov. 21.
Both will be open to the public simultaneously until January, 2004;
in Madrid, at the Fundación Telefónica, and in
Barcelona, at the Palau de la Virreina. Once leaving Spain, the
exhibit will travel through Europe and Latin America for the next
four years
On
exhibit is the complex mosaic of cultures that live together in Latin
America, the Caribbean and South American (expanding then into Europe
and North America). They are expressed in three thematic areas,
Rituals of Identity, Settings, and Alternative History, each of these
representing its own research area: the human body, the dialectic
between public and private, and historical accounts.
The
exhibit is the result of detailed research that relied on advice from
some of the most important experts on Latin America: critics,
magazine and publishing directors, exhibit organizers, curators of
the photography sections in the most active museums of the ‘90s,
managers of public and private collections, university professors,
gallery owners and the artists themselves.
Directing and organizing the exhibit has been the
responsibility of Alejandro Castellote, a specialist in
Latin-American photography and founder/artistic director of
PhotoEspaña (the international photography festival in Madrid)
in its three editions.
A
CLOSER LOOK AT LATIN LATINAMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY
Despite the spectacular booming activity in Latin American
art in the last decades of the twentieth century (evident in a
general way at the Biennials of contemporary art and more
specifically, at photography events), current Latin American
photography does not always form part of the exhibit circuits.
In
this regard, according to the exhibit’s organizer, Open Maps
wants to contribute to circulating these pieces so that the public
and experts can get a closer look at artists who, to a great degree,
are completely unknown. The criteria of the exhibit is one of non-
categorization. There is no classification according to tendencies;
instead the photographers represented offer a polyhedral view of
various ways to approach the themes, highlighting the changes that
have occurred in the photographic medium. The criteria also lies in
presenting pieces that explore new directions in form and concept.
The most recognized artists are on exhibit, but special importance is
given to those whose work matured during the nineties.
Open
Maps distances itself from the stereotypes associated with
Latin-American art and exotic stereotypes. It is divided into three
areas: “Rituals of Identity”, which reviews certain
hierarchical structures about representation of the human body;
“Alternative History”, which questions truthfulness in the
telling of history; and “Settings”, which proposes new
correlations between domestic and public, between the individual and
the group, and between inside and outside.
EXHIBIT AND CATALOGUE
In
honor of the exhibit, Lunwerg Editores has published a book with the
work of more than 200 photographers, including essays by Alejandro
Castellote; by the Cuban critic and researcher Juan Antonio Molina,
reflecting on Latin American photography of the nineties; by Rubens
Fernandes Júnior, critic, photographic exhibit organizer, and
director of the Communications Department at the Armando Alvares
Penteado Foundation, giving an overview of Brazilian photography; by
Alejandro Castellanos, historian and director of the Centro de la
Imágen in Mexico City, writing about his country as host for
Latin American artists, adding an analysis of Mexican photography; by
Iván Nuñez, Cuban writer, art critic and manager of
Virreina Exposiciones, reflecting on the preeminence of images in the
generations following the boom in Latin American literature; and by
Sergio Guerra Vilaboy, providing a thorough socio-political
chronology of the decade of the nineties in Latin America. Lastly,
the biographies of all the artists are included.
