Barcelona 1957. Leopoldo Pomés.

The Foto Colectania Foundation presents the exhibition "Barcelona 1957. Leopoldo Pomés", a show that recovers the photographic project about the city of Barcelona that the publisher Carlos Barral commissioned to a young Pomés in 1957 but which, despite its quality and intensity, has not surfaced until now. Far from portraying a showcase city, Pomés suggested a tour through the very essence of Barcelona in the late fifties offering his view over the city as a whole.

Therefore, the Raval or the Eixample did not escape from his objective as neither did the ​​life in neighborhoods such as the Barceloneta, Verdum or the Encants, located at the time in the city limits. From September 19 to January 26, 2013 the 80 photographs, many of them vintage prints,  that compose the project can be seen in this exhibition curated by Pepe Font de Mora, director of Foto Colectania, which will also be compiled in a photo-book co-edited by Colectania and La Fábrica, including texts by Juan Manuel Bonet, Leopoldo Pomés and Eduardo Mendoza.

In collaboration with the Foto Colectania Foundation, the Cinémathèque of Catalunya pays homage to Pomés during the month of October. More information here.

The book that accompanies the exhibition is available.

Presentation of the book at Foto Colectania: during December, exact date to be confirmed.

EXHIBITION EXTENDED UNTIL FEBRUARY 2.

Moday to saturday from 11am to 2pm and 4pm to 8pm 

Guided tours (included in the entrance fee): Mondays at 7pm, for a minimum of 5 people.

Patrocinador de exposición:

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Chorus.

After the photo exhibition "The Dwelling Life of Man. The Martin Z. Margulies Collection, the Foto Colectania Foundation presents a selection of videos from the same collection, considered one of the best in the world. Selected by the collector himself and Katherine Hinds, curator of the collection, the videos of "Chorus" show the international perspective of the Margulies Collection, by presenting artists from different countries and the variety of genres within the same field of video art. The exhibition, which includes 8 works in total, will be presented from June 26th to July 28th, 2012.

The exhibition title, "Chorus", taken from Marina Abramovic’s work refers to the different voices that exist in video art and tries to reflect this through the eight videos selected. It includes among others, conceptual works such as "Sleepwalkers" by Doug Aitken and "Tiger Oder Löwe" by Peter Friedl, projects using animation techniques such as "Turning Point" and "The Simpson Verdict" by Jacco Olivier and Kota Ezawa respectively, videos made by artists who have become true representatives of the genre such as Marina Abramovic, known for her impressive performances, and other pioneers of the medium, such as Fischli & Weiss.

Photography and Video Art Collection Martin Z. Margulies.

Along with the exhibition "Chorus",  on the Foundation’s upper floor we continue presenting photographs from the exhibition "The Dwelling Life of Man. The Martin Z. Margulies Collection”, which include some of the works of the most celebrated American photographers: children on the streets of New York by Helen Levitt, the famous immigrants pictures by Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange and snapshots of New York by Berenice Abbott, made in the 30 and 40, even the empty interiors of the hotels photographed by Lee Friedlander in the 60's, along with portraits of African men and women by Pieter Hugo, made in the first decade of the century, and photographs by Mike Disfarmer, Lewis Hine, Lucia Moholy, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Thomas Ruff, August Sander and Gillian Wearing.

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THE DWELLING LIFE OF MAN. Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Collection.

Foto Colectania and the Suñol Foundation simultaneously present the exhibition The Dwelling Life of Man. Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Collection, curated by Régis Durand. The exhibition includes more than 165 photographs and videos by 50 artists. 

In three different parts, the first two shown in Foto Colectania and the third in the Suñol Foundation, the exhibition explores the way man lives in the world, appropriates it, changes it and finally leaves his/her mark on the reality of emotions, life, work or nature. It includes some of the most important names in international photography, such as like Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Lee Friedlander, Ed Ruscha, Stephen Shore, William Eggleston, Helen Levitt, Andreas Gursky and Roni Horn.

The curator of the exhibition, Régis Durand, explained his concept in more details in the press conference which can be watched here.

An interview with the collector Martin Z. Margulies about his passion for art and his collection can be seen visiting this link.

The Dwelling Life of Man is shown in Foto Colectania and goes on in the Suñol Foundation which is a 10-15min-walk away from Foto Colectania.

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INDIRECT SPEECH. Curator: Martí Perán

Indirect speech is the style of narration in which the speaker appropriates the character’s voice to edit it as a clause subordinated to his/her own position. With this sort of gesture, contemporary culture tries to overcome a very specific deficiency: the urgency for a future.

Through an indirect speech, different episodes of the past, yet filled with hope and potentially projected into the future, are reviewed and reformatted as flashbacks that can storm the present, shake the linearity of history and allow dreaming about the future.

By the use of collage to reassemble fragments of materials, narratives and geographies, the photographic medium has become an effective tool to test this impatient, political (re)construction of new horizons. The exhibition Indirect Speech brings together different works settled in a tension between memory and prediction.

Participating artist: Adrià Julià, David Maljkovic, Chris Mottalini, Javier Peñafiel, Peter Piller, Eve Sussman, Thomas Steinert, Jordi Colomer.

More information about the exhibition:

http://issuu.com/fotocolectania/docs/colectaniaingles

Más información:
http://www.bolit.cat/cat/index.html

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Joan Colom. Album.

Joan Colom is considered one of the most important photographers of the 50s and 60s and one of the greatest documentalists of everyday life in Barcelona. With both passion and respect, his series gave expression to the spirit of Barcelona’s Raval district and became one of the most exceptional photography essays of the time.

This exhibition presents for the first time an unedited album to the public, which includes some of the author's favorite photographs, selected and arranged by him in a graphic sequence of great impact. It is a group of exquisite vintage prints intended as a gift to the gallery owner and art critic, Josep Maria Casademont. In 2004, the album was acquired by the Foto Colectania Foundation.

Colom's work has become not only the chronicle of a neighborhood and of a time but also a real story of what is human. Colom himself says, "I did not know I was doing social photography, I was only looking for images that moved me. I work the streets. With my photographs I seek to be kind of a notary of the time." With this exhibition, Foto Colectania aims to pay homage to Joan Colom, to his understanding of photography both as a visual document and as an expressive language.

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Garry Winogrand. Women are beautiful.

Foundation Foto Colectania  presents for the first time in Barcelona the famous series Women Are Beautiful by Garry Winogrand  

Garry Winogrand is considered one of the greatest innovators of photography of the twentieth-century in America. He knew like no other how to capture the social transformation of females in the 60's and 70's through his portraits of women who stand as an allegory of women's emancipation and their new role in society. The Foundation Foto Colectania presents its series Women Are Beautiful, including 85 photographs taken between 1960 and 1975 and collected in the book with the same title by the legendary director of photography at the MoMA, John Szarkowski. The exhibition from the collection of Lola Garrido, is part of the programming line of the foundation which is dedicated to authors who changed the course of the history of photography. The exhibition can be seen in Barcelona until June 4, 2011. In the 60's ended the era of big images as symbols of timeless truths, by the devastating influence first from Walker Evans, and later from Robert Frank and William Klein. The pictures are focused on the reflection of reality, no retouching or other ideas added. Garry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander represent "the new American style" which brole new ground in the so-called Street Photography.

Winogrand combines spontaneity with an apparent confusion, which is more than aware of the complexity of the photography world: "I photograph to see what the world looks like in photographs." The presence of human beings, contrasting with the crowds and the streets in his photographs reveals a new way of looking, in which the anarchy results in a wealth of shapes and structures. Biased and cold style of Winogrand is associated with Abstract Expressionism and its sharp diagonals are similar to paint brush strokes of those years. If the photographer Robert Frank was critical of the 50's, Garry Winogrand is one of the largest photographers of the 60's.

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Paco Gómez. Order and disorder. Photographs from the Paco Gómez Archive / Foto Colectania

Paco Gómez is a paramount photographer in the spanish photography but is little known by the public. The Foto Colectania Foundation which curates his archive since 2001, thanks to a donation from his inheritors, pays homage to Paco Gómez by presenting the first retrospective exhibition devoted to this photographer after his death. About 75 original photographs, validated by the author, show his particular way of seeing the world, away from documentary photography prevailing at the time.

Paco Gomez is a poet of the walls, trails, bare spaces and small objects. His observation demonstrates a sensibility deeply rooted in reality, but transcendent and loaded with symbolic meaning.

"Order and disorder" is an exhibition curated by Laura Terré, co-produced with the city of Pamplona and the Diputación de Huesca and sponsored by the Fundació Banc Sabadell.

Patrocinador de exposición:

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IMPRESSIONS AND COMMENTS. Portuguese Contemporary Photography

Exhibition Prints and comments,  Photo contemporary Portuguese includes works from two of the Portuguese most important collections of photography: the Collection of Banco Espirito Santo and Collection of the Fundação Serralves. Although these collections together names, now historical, of Portuguese artists, this exhibition will focus on the younger names Portuguese artistic context.

Exhibition Curator: João Fernandes, director of the Serralves Museum.

Participating artists:Patrícia Almeida, Basque Araújo, Pedro Barateiro, Calçada Rui Bastos, Catarina Botelho, Paulo Catrica, André Cepeda, Nuno Cera, Filipa César, Luisa Cunha, António Júlio Duarte, Alexandre Estrela, João Paulo Feliciano, Ramiro Guerreiro, Miguel Leal, Pedro Letria , Carlos Lobo, Adelina Lopes, Daniel Malhão, Edgar Martins, Paulo Mendes, Duarte Amaral Netto, Joao Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva, Luís Palma, Fernando José Pereira, André Príncipe, Mariana Silva, António de Sousa.

BESart Works Collection - Banco Espirito Santo and Fundação de Serralves Collection - Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto.

Exhibition sponsored by the festival "Portugal Convida" With the collaboration of Tourism of Portugal and Instituto Camoe.

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THE WEIGHT OF THE CITY. Latin American photography in the Anna Gamazo de Abelló collection

The collection of Anna Gamazo de Abello collects some of the best examples of twentieth century Latin American photography. Names like Horacio Coppola, the portrait photographer of Buenos Aires, the Cuban Alberto Korda, who shot to fame by the photos of Che Guevara, Sergio Larrain, the best example of Chilean photography; Geraldo de Barros, representative of the Brazilian avant-garde photography and Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, who portrayed the marginality of Mexico, among others, are part of these collection that has been developed in the field: its curator, the french Alexis Fabry  -who is curator of this exhibition- has traveled to different countries to see the best photograph of each place. Thus, after seven years, the collection of Anna Gamazo de Abelló is a representative example of all styles and techniques of Latin American photography, which includes documentary and aesthetic visions, and in which the protagonists are the people and their history.

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FIELD WORK. Cristóbal Hara / Rafael Sanz Lobato

In Field Work we draw parallels between the research methods employed by the social sciences and the methods used by the two participating photographers. Although coming from very different aesthetic outlooks, Rafael Sanz Lobato and Cristobal Hara use the same rural setting to convey their own vision of the world. Rafael Sanz Lobato’s original prints enter into a dialogue with Cristobal Hara’s colour images and this creates an interplay of resonances and differences that illustrates the diversity and richness in the language of photography.  We have tried to highlight the most characteristic elements of their styles, contrasting the shades of seriousness or humour, respect or transgression that underlie their works, without detracting in any way from their most significant series. Thus, Lobato’s Bercianos de Aliste (1970-1971) and Hara’s series about bullfights (Lances de Aldea, 1985-1989) are amply represented. Both series constitute good examples of a passionate way to involve oneself in a project and demonstrate how images acquire their full meaning in shaping a discourse.

Más información:
http://www.graciatelevisio.cat/node/678

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TRACES.

By presenting the work of seven contemporary artists, this exhibition investigates the narrative possibilities of the traces, marks and vestiges our actions leave behind. The exhibition's curator Xavier Ribas explains that the aim is to show "the relationship of photography as a trace and with traces, both as a technological device and as an aesthetic discourse, within representation and narration processes that circulate between reality and fiction".

Sven Johne's work refers to events based on different historical data, subjective experiences, signs or second-hand information. The projects by Ulrich Gebert and Anna Ferrer are more strictly documentary in that they engage in giving visibility to certain issues that we might consider anomalous. Gert Jan Kocken and Javier Ayarza explore spaces and objects that have been marked by situations of violence and historical or everyday conflicts. Finally, the works of Matt Packer and Lewis Ronald are more open investigations, appearing to fade into the obsessive accumulation and speed of the images they portray.

After its presentation at Foto Colectania, the Traces exhibition will be shown at the Centre for Photography of the University of Salamanca and at the Exhibition Hall of Cajasol.

Patrocinador de exposición:

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PAUL STRAND. RETROSPECTIVA 1915-1976

The work of Paul Strand, one of the undisputed masters of photography, anticipated many of the artistic achievements of the 20th century: his “direct photography" is considered to be a forerunner of movements such as New Objectivity. Strand was also the author of some of the most famous portraits in the history of photography, showing humble, anonymous people from the United States of the Crash of 1929 and post-war Europe.  

The exhibition Paul Strand: Retrospective 1915-1976, curated by Rafael Llano, has been produced by the Pedro Barrié de la Maza Foundation, and is on display in Foto Colectania after having been shown at the premises of the Pedro Barrié de la Maza Foundation in Spain (A Coruña and Vigo). Both foundations express their gratitude to the Aperture Foundation in New York, a not-for-profit organisation devoted to photography and the visual arts, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, for lending their works.  

The exhibition is accompanied by the publication Paul Strand. En el principio fue Manhattan (published by the Pedro Barrié de la Maza Foundation), which includes over a hundred images, as well as an extensive essay with the intention of redressing the lack of research on the photographer in our country.

For the first time in Spain, this exhibition brings together 75 original photographs (the majority of which are vintage copies) taken between 1915 and 1976, in what is a tour through the different artistic and thematic stages in Paul Strand’s career.

Patrocinador de exposición:

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PRIVATE EYES. COLECCIÓN LAURENCE MILLER

The Laurence Miller Collection encompasses some of the most representative works of international photography, with a particular emphasis on photography from North America. Artists such as Diane Arbus, Aaron Siskind, Ray K. Metzker, Helen Levitt, Lee Friedlander and Harry Callahan are part not just of Miller's private collection but also of his own biography: he had the good fortune of striking up intense and fruitful personal relationships with most of them, which is why Miller himself defines his collection as an "unauthorized autobiography".

His interest in collecting works by what were, at the time, little-known artists, allowing himself to be guided simply by his taste and intuition, has enabled Miller to amass an original collection over thirty years that includes a great number of classics from the world of photography.

The title of the exhibition is a reference to the perspective of a certain kind of photographer, who Miller himself describes as "an artist in pursuit of meaning and pleasure, working mostly in private without much care or need for fame, recognition or financial reward".

Patrocinador de exposición:

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JOURNEYS. 6 PHOTOGRAPHERS FROM THE FOTO COLECTANIA COLLECTION

JOURNEYS proposes a "journey" through creative Photography of the last decades, by showing the work of six photographers from the Foto Colectania Collection: Helena Almeida, Paco Gómez, Chema Madoz, Carlos Pérez Siquier, Xavier Ribas y Miguel Trillo.

The six photographers in the show have a very personal and distinct style: a photographic work that shares same importance with sculpture and performance in the case of Helena Almeida, the visual metaphors of Chema Madoz, the modern view of Paco Gómez, the avant-garde movement in the portraits by Carlos Pérez Siquier, the reflection upon urban spaces of Xavier Ribas and the portraits of urban tribes by Miguel Trillo. The exhibition is curated by Pepe Font de Mora, the Foundation's director.  

Patrocinador de exposición:

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THE PARTS AND THE WHOLE. H+F COLLECTION

With this exhibition of contemporary photography, Foto Colectania presents 60 works selected by the artist Ignasi Aballí from the H+F Collection, owned by the Dutch collector Han Nefkens.

"I'm attracted to images that aren't immediately clear, that leave a space for interpretation in your mind to complete them." This is how Han Nefkens describes the collection he began seven years ago and which now comprises 450 works from nearly 80 artists from all over the world. A great promotor of cultural initiatives, Han Nefkens has developed his collection as a means of creating other projects. Nefkens works with leading European museums carrying out specific projects. He also promotes collaboration initiatives between artists and organisations fighting AIDS.

It was Nefkens himself who suggested to the Barcelona artist Ignasi Aballí -who has enjoyed a long and highly acclaimed career- that he himself choose photographs from the H+F Collection. Nefkens invited Aballí to offer his own vision of the works and discover new relationships between the photographs. The title of the exhibition, THE PARTS AND THE WHOLE, refers to the duality between fragmentary visions of reality and visions that aim to show this reality from a more global perspective.

Standing out amongst the pieces selected by Ignasi Aballí are those that best reflect the objectives of Han Nefkens: works that stimulate thought and a renewed look. There are images that show their proximity to painting, photographs by Jörg Sasse and Stephen Shore, for example, and others where the limits between reality and abstraction dissolve, such as on the photographs of Roni Horn, Annika von Hausswolff, Thomas Ruff, Rinko Kawauchi and Naoya Hatakeyama. Finally, there are works with social or political connotations such as those by Gerald Van Der Kaap, Martine Stig, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Shirin Neshat.

Más información:
www.hfcollection.org/

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WOMAN, ETCETERA. MODA Y MUJER EN LAS COLECCIONES

Featuring the work of some of the great artists in photography "Woman, etcetera." shows the influence fashion has had on women. This is not an exhibition about fashion photography. Nor is it about the photography of women. At least, that’s not all it is. 

The photographs in this exhibition show us the real women behind their iconic images and vice versa, displaying each one to the viewer from a multitude of different perspectives. Photographers like Irving Penn, William Klein, Wolfgang Tillmans, Norman Parkinson, Cartier-Bresson, Frank Horvat and Louise Dahl-Wolfe who pursued beauty and feminine identity in a way that went much further than just a question of gender. They took portraits of a woman and her world. They photographed the other aspects of a woman, the “etcetera” around her.

In the words of Lola Garrido, the exhibition's curator "the exhibition aims to recall how we have changed, how the great photographers worked and how fashion photography, which ought be purely commercial, became a statement about ideals and aspirations that we still follow today". 

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THEIR EYES BETRAY THEM. COLECCIÓN DE LOLA GARRIDO

The Lola Garrido collection, compiled over more than twenty years, is one of the most pioneering in Spain. The exhibition "Their eyes betray them" presents a selection of 70 photographs telling two stories: that of a personal view of photography endorsed by the experience of a professional artist and the evolution of collecting and changes in the art market itself.  

This exhibition includes works by the great figures from the history of photography, such as Rodchenko, Dorothea Lange, Man Ray, Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, and Edward Steichen, together with contemporary artists including Philip-Lorca DiCorcia, Nan Goldin, Alberto García-Alix and Gregory Crewdson. It is an eclectic, heterodox collection where almost every photographic movement and style is represented, and in which some works throw light on others. 

The selection meets an intimate criterion: Their eyes betray them submits the subject in the photograph as evidence, revealed, and the photographer who is observing from behind the lens. All of them have been saved from being forgotten by their collector. And the spectator is revealed through them.

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STRANGE COUPLES. FONDOS DE LA COLECCIÓN FOTO COLECTANIA

This new gaze at our collection revolves around duality, specifically the duality of the couple. This idea is the starting point for exploring links between the creator and his photographs, captivating us with the peculiar association of images inherent in collecting and, in this case, curating. It is a question of selection which is often closer to the unconscious and perception than to logic.

The exhibition takes us through five themes to show us the immense diversity of expression of some contemporary Spanish and Portuguese photographers.

  Strange Couples: those beings we connect with who may seem grotesque, unfocused, so similar or so different - a questioning of our obsession to know how we are perceived.

   Objects: those in which the photographer portrays subtle repetitions or contradictory elements, something the surrealists were so talented in exploiting.

   Hands: Coming always in twos and a symbol of our identity, hands are able to express our relationship with others; they've been a recurrent theme in photography and the motive behind magnificent collections.

   Love: a universal theme in art and photography, we see it here superimposed on signs, umbrellas or paintings, capturing glimpses of its transaction on the street or its re-enactment in passionate stories.

   Children and Animals: As Walter Benjamin said, children are the first collectors, but more than that, children never fail to surprise themselves by looking at adults, at themselves and at animals, with whom they pose and live together without fear.

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NO LIMITS. FOTOGRAFÍAS DE LA COLECCIÓN DE LA FUNDAÇÃO DE SERRALVES

The Museu de Arte Contemporânea de la Fundação de Serralves has one of the most important contemporary art collections in Portugal. Begun by Vicente Todoli during his time as director of the museum, and continued by its current director, João Fernandes, it focuses in particular on the decades of the 60s and 70s. The development of conceptual photography, the use of new techniques and media, and a new relationship between artists and their surroundings are the hallmarks of the work produced during this period. This is a key collection of this artistic movement, both within Portugal and overseas.

The exhibition No Limits. The Collection of the Fundação de Serralves, curated by João Fernandes, offers the chance to discover works by Dan Graham, Gilbert & George and John Baldessari, along with representatives of Portuguese photography such as Paulo Nozolino and António Júlio Duarte and artists who also use photography, such as Julião Sarmento and Alberto Carneiro. The selection combines pieces by established artists with those of younger photographers whose work follows similar conceptual lines. It is not, however, a chronological exhibition, but rather one which implies two thematic approaches: the relationship between art and landscape, and the critique of social models.

Más información:
http://www.serralves.pt/

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A SWISS PASSION. COLECCIÓN M+M AUER

Following our aim to promote and encourage photography collecting, Foto Colectania presents a selection from the collection of M.+M. Auer, without doubt one of the most important in Europe.

The M.+M. Auer collection was born when Michel and Michèle met in 1974. Forty years of collecting, a deep-seated, enduring passion, from which Lola Garrido has selected an exquisite, if limited, fragment of a whole life dedicated to photography.

A Swiss Passion takes us on a trip through modern times, with photographs from the very first pioneers up to the conceptual movement. In addition to vintage prints of such renowned photographers as Drtikol, Man Ray, Boggeri and Lewis Hine, the selection includes various images from perhaps less famous, but no less representative, names.

Rounding off the exhibition is a display of books from the Auers' impressive library; tomes of Rodchenko and Moholy-Nagy, or the magnificent Paris by Moï Ver, reveal the importance of the book as a means of disseminating the photographic medium, and offer a more complete vision of one of its most productive artistic eras.

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XAVIER RIBAS. FONDOS DE LA COLECCIÓN FOTO COLECTANIA

Xavier Ribas' work focuses on representing spaces which, in one way or another, contain remains or signs of occupation. This is the case with the series we present in this exhibition, "Flowers" (1998-2000) and "Thresholds" (2001-2002), in which what he represents lends itself to a process of symbolic condensation. Firstly, the flowers placed beside the road as a sign of an event that has radically transformed the nature of the place and, secondly, images of the doors of financial institutions from the series "Thresholds", mostly taken in the City of London, showing the shadowy nature of the space they enclose. The show is completed with a selection of his early black and white works, which have not been exhibited before.

Xavier Ribas (Barcelona, 1960) studied anthropology at the University of Barcelona and photography at the Newport School of Art and Design. He has won the FotoPress‘ 95, PhotoEspaña'98 and Primavera Fotográfica (2000) awards and has exhibited at venues including the Photographer's Gallery in London (1999 and 2004); the Old Museum Arts Centre in Belfast (2000); the Biennale d'Art Contemporain in Lyon (2001) and CASA, (Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Salamanca) (2002). Since 2000, he has been a lecturer in the photography department at the University of Brighton (United Kingdom).

Más información:
http://www.xavierribas.com/

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MEMORY & TIME. COLECCIONAR FOTOGRAFÍA HOY

A group exhibition is a difficult project, which aims to find relationships between different ways of creating, with different genres and artistic approaches. If there is one special aspect of photography, it is that it deals with that quintessential human characteristic: memory. This is the only connection with reality. Without memory we do not exist. Memory is made of time.

In this group exhibition, memory and time are the two pillars for the work of various artists. There are different styles, various approaches, although most seek to document time and reconstruct it for our memory. Here we see not haste but delay; there are no decisive moments, but snapshots collected in the search for them, working towards them.

In Memory & Time. Collecting Photography Today, our artistic director, Lola Garrido, offers us the chance to revisit the work of such established artists as Walter Martin & Paloma Muñoz, Ignasi Aballí and Eva Lootz, and the Germans Peter Piller, Jochen Lempert and Elger Esser, together with photographers who are still establishing their artistic career, such as Jacobo Castellano and Cristina Martín Lara.

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PAS MOI SANS EUX. COLECCIÓN PIERRE BORHAN

The private collection of Pierre Borhan, the pseudonym of Pierre Bonhomme, is the result of his passion for photography, which he has developed in his role as critic, exhibition curator and, for over fifteen years, as director of the French Patrimoine Photographique.

The storyline of Borhan's collection is closely linked to his own artistic and personal biography. As is suggested by the title of the exhibition, Pas moi sans eux, he would not be the person he is today without the things that the photographers and their works have given him. His close relationship with photographers such as Jan Saudek, André Kertész, William Klein, Marc Trivier or Toni Catany and an undoubted taste are the guidelines of his collection, other than stylistic or chronological criteria.

We are pleased to present a selection of photographs by artists with whom Borhan has worked or whose work fascinates him. "I am deeply aware that I take ownership of their photographs because they make me happy but particularly because they occupy their dreamed of place in my visual and mental universe, both real and imaginary" -as he writes in the exhibition catalogue.  Among the 80 works in this exhibition, there are pieces by masters of photography such as Eugène Atget, Josef Sudek and André Kertész, as well as an exceptional selection of portraits by Irving Penn, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Sally Mann and Denise Colomb.

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HOUSE OF LIGHT. COLECCIÓN MÁRIO TEXEIRA DA SILVA

Mário Teixeira da Silva has been promoting photography for thirty years. In 1975, he opened the Art Diffusion-Modulo Centre in Oporto and remains faithful to the initial reasons behind the project:: promoting young Portuguese artists and showing the viability of Portuguese art outside its borders; bringing the international art world of the time to Portugal and defending the role of photography as an artistic genre.  

From such a privileged perspective, he has built one of the most important photography collections in the country. He says that many gallery owners are also collectors and not only sellers of art. He is also convinced that his work as a collector is independent from his functions as a gallery owner, although they occasionally coincide.

Mário Teixeira da Silva's collection, which has never before been exhibited in public, is the passionate biography of a collector surrounded by some of the best images of the century. According to Lola Garrido, our art manager,

" Mário lives with his photographs. He lives with the pictures he has been collecting for thirty years. With the passion of a gleaner, with the knowledge of those who live for art, with the freedom of those who only buy what they want. This is why he has decided to call it "House of Light". Photography is written with light." 

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PRIVATE LIVES. COLECCIÓN FOTO COLECTANIA

For the first time, Fundació Foto Colectania presents a selection of its own collection, currently consisting of over 1,500 works by Portuguese and Spanish photographers. The collection, which was started by Mario Rotllant, is limited to a specific period - from 1950 to date - and two countries, Spain and Portugal. These two premises, in addition to the surprising similarities between the creators from the two countries, led to the establishment of a third: the emblematic nature of the works as expressions of their authors' personalities and how they are representative of contemporary photography.

Both the exhibition and the catalogue reveal the selection criteria used to create our collection, suggested by the title itself, Private Lives. We have always been interested in discovering what happens behind the camera, so when we buy photographs we ask the authors to tell us about their private lives; in other words, the stories behind the creation process, which are only known by the protagonist, the connotations of the act of taking the photograph or the photographer's involvement with the images produced. A first-hand description increases their unquestionable value.

It is difficult to understand a society without contemplating its art, and nearly impossible to remember without the artistic documents of our immediate past; therefore, we are convinced that photography combines these two qualities which, in this exhibition, are evident in the documentary and creative value of the works.

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BRIEF AS PHOTOS. EL RETRATO EN LA COLECCIÓN DE LA FUNDACIÓN TELEVISA

The Televisa Foundation collection shows how a major corporation associates itself to the acquisition of artistic heritage representing its own time and the history of its own country, as part of a long-term investment.

In 1980, the Televisa Foundation asked photographer and collector Manuel Álvarez Bravo to take part in a project to create a Mexican Photography Museum.

Álvarez Bravo's original collection contains a total of 1,200 photographs, that represent a historical journey through the art of photography, from its origins to mid-20th century. The Casa Lamm Cultural Centre in Mexico now houses, preserves and promotes this excellent photography collection, from which 75 portraits have been selected to be exhibited in  Barcelona.

When, in 1986,  Manuel Álvarez Bravo left the project continue his work as a photographer, the Televisa Foundation has enlarged its collection with new acquisitions, , largely authors from the last few decades and representatives of new movements.  It now holds a total of 2.294 photographs.

The portrait is the photographic genre par excellence, that has evolved as photography has become more popular, with technological progress and acknowledgement of its subjectivity.

For the Televisa Foundation collection, Álvarez Bravo chose the most representative authors related to the portrait genre, covering practically all periods and styles, and it is therefore one of the most important aspects of the collection.

Más información:
http://www.esmas.com/coleccionfotografica/index.html

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REALITY AND REPRESENTATION. COLECCIONAR PAISAJE HOY

Documentary realism conveyed through the artist's intention or intuition...representation and subjectivity achieved through digital manipulation or the integration of objects...modern idealism opposite post-modernist scepticism...conceptual rigor... These are sample of some of the conflicting forces present in contemporary photography which form part of the most heated battles going on in artistic circles today.

Photography today: that which traverses the plastic arts and takes no notice of adjectives and nouns...That which participates in the disappearance and ever-frequent separation between media, genres or production. Art created by today's artists, in the specific genre of photography, a genre which has experienced profound evolution. If the search for truth in the creative process ended in Modernism, then today it has no other aim than to represent a part of that same multiple and diverse reality that surrounds us.

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RESONANCE. BRASSAÏ - PARÍS / COLOM - BARCELONA

With this exhibition we want to establish a connection between two important photographer's work, Brassaï (Braçov 1899 - Paris 1984) and Joan Colom (Barcelona, 1921). The resonance is not only among their photographic style but also between the life in the city of Paris in the thirties and of the Barcelona in the late fifties.

The exhibition gathers together 70 vintage photographs, 35 of every author, that belong to different national and international private collections. The 27 photographs by Brassaï were the original photographs that illustrated the first edition of Henry Miller's book, Quiet Days in Clichy, which never before had been exposed as a whole. With Colom's images, we are showing for the first time a part of Foto Colectania's collection.

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AS IF NOTHING. COLECCIÓN JUAN REDÓN

Juan Redón started his collection in 1994 and he is a member of a new generation of collectors. Since then, his collection has been focused to risky, provocative and homo-erotic photography

It stands out its interest for portrait, the male nude, identity's reflection or sexual orientation. Juan Redón himself defines it like a gay collection (without thereby excluding any artist who is not gay) and it is from this point of view from which the works come together (in a way nothing accidental) and acquires a dimension that enhances that vision. "What matters in photography and contemporary art in general is the eye, the eye as a form of artistic knowledge, which fascinates me" says Juan Redón. The collection includes works by: Andrés Serrano, David Byrne, John Waters, Miguel Río-Branco, Anton Corbjin, Martin Parr, Liliana Porter, Dino Bruzzoni, James Bidgood, Juan Pablo Ballester, Monserrat Soto, Miguel Trillo, Santos Montes, Txomin Badiola, Alberto García- Alix, Pierre Gonnord, Erwin Olaf o Edward Lucie- Smith.

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NATIONAL COLLECTION OF PHOTOGRAHPY. CENTRO PORTUGUÉS DE FOTOGRAFÍA - MINISTERIO DE CULTURA

Colección Nacional de Fotografía, Centro Portugués de Fotografía / MC includes some of the greatest pictures in the world of international and Portuguese photography. The collection was started by the art critic and historian Jorge Calado and it has been continued by the CPF's present director, Teresa Siza

The collection gathers together photographs from the 19th century, vnowadays, hard to find in the market, (Fox Talbot, Fenton, Strauss or Margaret Cameron), images from the Pictorialists (Stieglitz, Steichen, Coburn or wonderful plates from Camera Work) and  copies of masters of documentalism such as Atget. It also includes social works from the Farm Security Administration members such as Walker Evans or Dorothea Lange and authors like Lartigue, Kertész, Sander, Strand or David Hockney. The work of some of the greatest Portuguese artists is also represented:  Carlos Calvet, Almeida, Molder, Nozolino an others.

Lola Garrido is the curator of the exhibition.

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ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF LIGHT. MANUEL ÁLVAREZ BRAVO. FOTOGRAFÍAS 1920 - 1998

Foto Colectania is pleased to present, for the first time in Barcelona, a retrospective of Manuel Álvarez Bravo's photographs.

Celebrating the author's centennial, this exhibition includes works specifically selected by Alvarez Bravo and his wife, Colette Urbajtel.  Over 70 works, from the beginning of his career ( Parábola óptica, 1929 )  to his latest, perhaps less known photographs from the 70s onwards are displayed alongside Alvarez Bravo's best known images (La buena fama durmiendo, 1939 , Obrero en huelga asesinado, 1934 or  El umbral, 1947).

The exhibition has been organised by the National Counsel for Culture and Arts and the Foreign Relations Office, Mexico , and has previously been shown at Kunsthal Rotterdam.

Alvarez Bravo is one of  the masters in contemporary photography.  His first photographs date back to 1922. His professional and personal relationship with Edward Weston and Tina Modotti branded his work as a photographer. It was at the height of the social upheaval of the 30's when Alvarez Bravo discovered the roots of mexican national identity, within its people and places, which provided  him with uncountable elements to reinvent reality.

Alvarez Bravo's work is in most international collections worldwide, including the Paul Getty Museum, San Diego, MOMA New York, MNCARS, Madrid or Museo de Bellas Artes, Mexico.

Más información:
http://www.manuelalvarezbravo.org/

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CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPES. COLECCIÓN HELGA DE ALVEAR

The Helga de Alvear Collection is without doubt one of the great collections in existence right now in our country. It is a testimony to the latest art of our time: a collection in which the new media - photography and video - occupy an increasingly important space. It is an amalgam of styles that has grown as the owner, with studious and dedicated attention, has expanded her knowledge of new works. Helga stands at the very centre, where new tendencies are born, and from this privileged position she contrasts with exceptional vitality the range of attitudes that occur in the creative world.

Her collection is as clear as her character. From the outset, she has only learnt and evolved with innovation, and her collection has travelled the same road, advancing in one direction and another as new revelations emerge, which she, with overt joy, acquires in all certainty of enriching her collection and her mind.

This selection includes works by: Cindy Sherman, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jeff Wall, Thomas Ruff, Merete Oppenheim, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Hiroshi Sugimoto and  Gordon Matta-Clark, among others.

Más información:
http://www.helgadealvear.com/

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