Exhibition
Securitas
Press Conference:
June 6, 2001 at 1 p.m.
Opening:
June 6, 2001, 7:30 p.m.
Fundación Telefónica
Temporary Exhibit Room
Entrance at Fuencarral 3
June 6 through 29
Catalogues
 500 limited edition catalogs numered and signed by Joan Fontcuberta.
Price 15.000 Ptas.
Prize 4.950 Ptas.
ISBN 84-89884-26-9
Concept and graphic design by Joan Fontcuberta, Jordi Ortiz and Paxti Solá. Design and production of the metallic version of catalogue by Estudi Blanc.
Photographs by Joan Fontcuberta.
Texts by Joan Fontcuberta, Jorge Luis Marzo and Roberto Velázquez.
Spanish
English
Illustrations in color
Available
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JOAN FONTCUBERTA, visual artist specialized in photography, author of pieces such as Secret Fauna and Sputnik, presents at la Fundación Telefónica his latest interactive visual project, Securitas, based on the concept of security. In this collection the public is able to insert their keys into a three-dimensional amplifier.
Fontcuberta bases his work on photographic concepts and arrives at solutions that go beyond photography, combining digital images and interactive devices. As a starting point he takes something basic, such as shadow theater and arrives at elements technologically sophisticated, such as the Internet.
The collection consists of two installations: "Security Tectonics", the part that contains the three-dimensional amplifier, a device that interacts with the public, and "Security Landscape", which displays the chain of projections from the keys of the president of the government, various ministers, and the head officials of the police, National Civil Guard, CESID (national intelligence agency), the Chiefs of Staff of the three branches of the military, etc.
Attending the press conference will be Joan Fontcuberta, author and organizer of the exhibit, as well as Roberto Velázquez, General Manager of la Fundación Telefónica.
CLICK to see
"Security Tectonics",
the part that contains
the three-dimensional amplifier,
a device that interacts
with the public.
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FONTCUBERTA, TRANSLATOR OF IMAGES
Fontcuberta has based his project on a minimalist idea which he develops poetically in two sections, one completely expository "Security Landscapes", and the other, interactive, "Security Tectonics". With this exhibit Fontcuberta explores the boundaries between photography and painting, between literature and the language of new technologies.
The importance of the concept of security for man and its being symbolized by an everyday object such as a key is articulated in Securitas into a binomial in which Fontcuberta translates the key into a mountainous landscape, which then transforms into a mountain range.
As the artist himself has commented, "More than a technique, Securitas develops the idea of a photographic imprint - to which I add another presentation, not strictly photographic, but purely projectional, an analogical transposing of objects, digital images and interactive sculptures".
HOW THE INTERACTIVE DEVICE WORKS
The interactive device is operated by inserting a key (any key the visitor might have) into a keyhole. This keyhole is, in reality, a scanner that reads the values of the teeth on the key and transmits them, amplified, to a mechanism with a hundred rods on one surface, going from smaller to greater in height, reproducing the profile of the original key. The structure is covered with an elastic fabric and the effect produced is one of creating a mountain, different each time and faithful to the teeth of each key.
One can also operate this device in real time through the web page of la Fundación Telefónica.
FROM PERSONAL KEYS TO THE "SECURITY LANDSCAPE"
In Securitas, Fontcuberta makes a bold connection between mountains, natural defense with sinuous relief, symbol of impregnable territory, and keys, symbol of security, emblems of privacy and protection. The exhibit proposes that we discover a series of landscapes obtained through revealing to our keys the mountains that served as their models.
To make this idea specific to the Spanish case the author requested the keys of figures holding responsibility for security in the Spanish state: José María Aznar, President of the Government; Mariano Rajoy, First Vice-president of the Government and Minister of the Interior; Federico Trillo, Minister of Defense, etc. In one way or another these keys have to do with them carrying out the duties of their jobs. These persons were selected, as Fontcuberta puts it, in order to "match this idea with a concrete situation, that of Spain, and to give it a social and collective dimension." "The key of the Minister of Defense has repercussions on the general security of the entire population."
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