Presentation of the book "Ça-a-été? Contra Barthes" by Joan Fontcuberta

The Virreina Center de la Imatge will host the presentation of the book Ça-a-été? On February 10 at 7 p.m. Contra Barthes, an essay by Joan Fontcuberta published by Joaquín Gallego Editor. With Andrés Hispano, specialist in visual culture; Joan Fontcuberta, author of the book; Cuauhtémoc Medina, curator of contemporary art (by video conference), and Valentín Roma, director of La Virreina Center de la Imatge.

Roland Barthes points to The Lucid Camera: A Note on Photography: For me, the Photographer's organ is not the eye (which frightens me), but the finger: the one that is tied to the shutter of the lens, when sliding metal on the plates (in cases where the appliance still has them). ' But above all, the indexing gesture illustrates the basic principle of the graphic document. Every photograph, in Barthes' words, is an act of signaling that "this has been" (Ça-a-été).

This book represents the culmination of the exhibition project of the same title, currently presented in the Sala Miserachs of La Virreina Center de la Imatge, which proposes the photographic archive of the Mexican magazine of "red note" Alerta as a case study. In his essay Fontcuberta is the backbone of a series of reflections that pay homage and at the same time desecrate the Barthesian thought in an attempt to update it to the current post-photographic visual order.