Fundación Telefónica

Disability Exhibitions Venezuela

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Information about the exhibition

For the first time an exhibition can be seen in Venezuela that comprises 39 works produced by 28 different international artists making up this collection which began in 2002, and which includes a variety of works, ranging from creations from the 1960’s to the most modern artistic expressions.

Caracas, 10 November 2011.- For the first time Fundación Telefónica is presenting in Venezuela the Telefónica Contemporary Photography Collection, made up of 39 works by 28 prominent creators from the international art scene, which is being displayed in the Periférico Caracas contemporary art centre between 13 November 2011 and 15 January 2012. It is also holding a photography workshop so as to offer an in-depth insight into contemporary art.

The 39 pieces selected are works by prominent artists from the international art scene such as Cindy Sherman, Mona Hatoum, Helena Almeida, John Coplans and Olafür Eliasson. In this respect, it reflects the pattern shift that came about in visual culture – particularly in recent decades – when photography, cinema and video became instruments of artistic value.

The focus of this significant collection is the turning point upon which photography started to become aware of its capacity of expression and of the value of its powers  of representation at the turn of the 21st century, subverting the very codes and language used by this medium. Built around some of the most emblematic figures of the visual art scene, the collection embraces approaches that are radical and conceptual, aesthetic and narrative, documentary and social, forming a whole which captures the variety and eclecticism of a creative era characterised by its extraordinary wealth and abundance.

The artists whose works make up the Telefónica Contemporary Photography Collection use photography as a medium through which to express themselves and experiment. Their pictures give form to artistic experience within the context of contemporary culture. Nowadays there is absolutely no doubt about the artistic value of photography since it is one of the expressions that artists use most. In order to capture this reality, the collection reflects the already historic nature of contemporary photography and accordingly covers an era spanning from the 1960’s up to current narrative trends. Hence the collection includes the works of The Dusseldorf School of Photography (the disciples of Bernd and Hilla Becher in Europe: Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky and Candida Höfer), the artists belonging to the cinematic/pictorial movement (John Baldessari and Philip-Lorca diCorcia) and John Baldessari’s supporters in the United States, Richard Prince and Cindy Sherman, among others.

Creation of the collection

Started in 2002, the Telefónica Contemporary Photography Collection was created with the aim of reflecting the area of emancipation from which photography reasserted its validity as a vehicle for artistic expression, freeing itself from its documentary role. The pattern shift that came about in visual culture as a result of this new approach paved the way for one of the most prolific fields of experimentation and creation in the history of art.

From analogue to digital photography, new technology and its use in art is an element of the Telefónica Contemporary Photography Collection, a permanently evolving project that also offers some key examples of the formal relationship between photography and social or performative accounts. A variety of genres whose roots are found in the history of art, such as portraits, landscapes and architectural photography,
make up a collection that spans the most pervasive themes of contemporary artistic creation, from the recovery of historical memory to social statements, the critique of artistic processes or the use of the body as a platform for plastic expression.

Workshop on Spaces for Art and Contemporary Photography

By way of an introduction to this exhibition, Fundación Telefónica and Periférico Caracas have organised the Workshop on Spaces for Art and Contemporary Photography, aimed at the general public, which will deal with a variety of topics, such as:  “Contemporary photography as artistic rhetoric”, which will be given by Lisa Blackmore, a prominent British photographer who resides in our country; “Fundación Telefónica’s new Art Centre in Madrid”, given by Laura Fernández Orgáz from Fundación Telefónica España; impressions of “Fundación Telefónica’s Space” by Alejandrina D’Elía, from Fundación Telefónica Argentina, and “The Periférico Caracas Experience”, by its director, Jesús Fuenmayor.

This workshop will be held on 11 November in Galpón (hall) No. 1 at Periférico Caracas from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., and admission is free of charge.

The exhibition pre-opening event, held in Periférico Caracas/Contemporary Art  was attended by Michael Duncan, Chairman of Telefónica Venezuela; Douglas Ochoa, Vice President of Corporate Communications and Fundación Telefónica; Giovanna Bruni, General Manager of Fundación Telefónica; Alicia Carabias Álvaro, curator; and Laura Fernández Orgáz, Alejandrina D’Elía and Nidia Chávez, Art and Technology Managers at Fundación Telefónica de España, Argentina and Venezuela, respectively.

After being displayed at Periférico Caracas, the Telefónica Contemporary Photography Collection, managed by Fundación Telefónica, will move on to Quito, Ecuador. This year it has already been a great success in the Fundación Telefónica Centre in Lima, Peru, and the Instituto Tomie Ohtake cultural institute in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Exhibition opening hours:

The Telefónica Contemporary Photography Collection can be visited at Periférico Caracas/Contemporary Art (located at the 8th intersection between Ávila Avenue and Los Chorros) until Sunday 15 January 2012. Visiting hours will be from Tuesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission free.