The story revealed

As a general rule, the aesthetic appreciation of a photograph — like that of any work of art — is gained by discovering more about the secrets that surround it. This information, which the true lover of art is quick to find in the texts of the room and the posters of the exhibitions, is often reduced to the title of the pieces, forcing the most dissatisfied to travel the vast world of information. of the Internet to satiate your curiosity. Foto Colectania, however, makes it easy for us, serving as a tray this hybrid exercise between gossip and admiration for the exhibition Based on real stories, curated by the artistic director of the foundation, Irene Mendoza, which can be seen at the Center d art of Escaldes-Engordany (Andorra) until June 11, 2022.

The exhibition includes not only 125 original photographs belonging to the prestigious collection, one of the most complete collections of Iberian photography from 1950 to the present day, but also the secrets of each of the works. Testimonies from the artists themselves or people close to them who have been able to gather thanks to the complicity of many of the authors with this non-profit foundation, which shed light on those stories that are hidden behind it and that we so often find in missing samples. Stories that refer to the intentions and experiences of the person who created them and that give clues to meaning and context that often go unnoticed.

But who are the protagonists of these stories? Among the more than 50 artists on display are the names of Joan Fontcuberta, Xavier Miserachs, Joan Colom and Chema Madoz, the latter author of the first two photographs with which the collection began, now more than 3,000 copies. Also noteworthy is the presence of women in the exhibition, represented, among others, by the National Photography Award 2021 Pilar Aymerich and two of the only fifteen female photographers who are part of the hundred members of the Magnum Agency: Cristina García Rodero and Cristina de Middle.

Thus, we can find both the photograph of Leopoldo Pomés and the story of Karin Leiz, woman and model of the artist, about the circumstances in which the famous Imagen blanca was created; photograph and testimony of Carlos Pérez Siquer, who explains the reason for his only aggressive snapshot when a nursing gypsy woman cursed him for trying to portray her; or Carlos Cánovas' favorite photograph by author Francisco Gómez, which he describes as "a beautiful example of an ellipsis." All the moments in this show are an invitation to look again, to delve deeper into the images and to discover new stories that are not the ones that usually appear in textbooks.

The exhibition is divided into four areas: Personal album , The other story of photographs , Real landscapes - imagined landscapes and Constructed stories . And, for those who have not had enough of the texts that accompany the works, a QR code next to each of the pieces will allow you to access other contents of the Foto Colectània website: other images from the series and related resources. For its part, the Escaldes-Engordany Art Center has offered guided tours and family workshops to bring children and adults closer to the contents of the exhibition. With all these resources at hand, how difficult it will be to get out of this exhibition without even a little curiosity!