Fotografia contemporânea: Anna Malagrida, Camila Sposati, Claudia Jaguaribe, Claudio Edinger, Érica Bohm, Enrique Radigales, Eve Sussman e Rufus Corporation, Flavia Junqueira, The Hilton Brothers, Joan Fontcuberta, Nazareno, Nicola Costantino, Ola Kolehmainen, Patrick Hamilton, Re
The emergence of photography as a medium for immediate and reproducible reality led to an endless succession of images capturing places and landscapes deemed “must-see,” forming continuous travel albums. Likewise, the bourgeoisie began organizing this photographic material into luxurious small books, a family catalog. Both these travel albums and family collections reflected a constructed reality. Photographs of the world’s major monuments were carefully selected to create a cabinet of wonders, which did not represent a complete reality, just as portraits set against exotic backdrops gave an air of charm to the status of palace dwellers. The mechanical deception of photography was overlooked in the pursuit of documentary images, developed through photojournalism during major wars, capturing the most depressed areas and their inhabitants. Eventually, as the illusion of objectivity in photography became widely recognized, and the selective role of the photographer acknowledged, photography transitioned into the realm of art, going beyond mere mechanical reproduction.
For this group exhibition, we aim to offer a vision of how subjectivity is handled in photography. Each of the participating artists, with their unique sensibilities, are creators of scenarios, sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly. The physical or psychological manipulation of images is fundamental in constructing this subjectivity, which places before us a nonexistent world as a pretext to discuss our real world and our role within it. This is our contemporary album.
Five of the featured works directly engage with the physical creation of scenes, using actors, masks, or costumes to explore the concealment of identity. Eve Sussman & The Rufus Corporation recreate the myth of the Rape of the Sabine Women in settings that emphasize the role of women as trophies. Nicola Costantino portrays herself reenacting iconic works from art history in a process of self-analysis. Flavia Junqueira transforms spaces by accumulating objects, in this case balloons, where she exposes and conceals herself, reinventing the space of memory. The Hilton Brothers juxtapose recreated portraits of Andy Warhol with astonishingly beautiful flowers to discuss gender and mythology. Ricardo Alcaide, in a journey through São Paulo, turns pedestrians into "Transeuntes" by having them pose behind animal masks, suspending the flow of daily life and exposing the nihilism of existence in a great metropolis.
The development of digital media has introduced countless technological possibilities. Claudia Jaguaribe questions the coexistence of humans and nature, particularly in the astonishing Brazilian landscape. Joan Fontcuberta, addressing contemporary themes such as pornography, constructs his series "Googlerama" from images found in online searches. Érica Bohm, with her veiled sci-fi landscapes, manipulates images to transcend temporality. These are all examples of how digital technology is used in photographic invention.
In another approach to transformation, several artists focus directly on urban elements as a means of exploring our position within society. Patrick Hamilton’s collages critique the power of large corporations. Enrique Radigales examines the industrialization of the environment by making laser-cut incisions into plant leaves. Ana Malagrida presents veiled storefront windows, negating visibility in the quintessential space of commerce. Tulio Pinto's three-dimensional interventions redefine spatial relationships. Camila Sposati disrupts domestic environments with colored smoke that alters the temporal and chromatic perception of a São Paulo building’s interior.
Finally, some artists challenge our gaze by selecting details that confront the broader concept. This is the case in Nazareno’s series of antique toys, collected from various flea markets, where their lost scale and their displacement in time challenge our perception of childhood. With a conceptual approach, Tom Lisboa's (in)visible Polaroids work with photographic images as the foundation of the artwork, culminating in words that construct the collective imagination shaped by photography. Claudio Edinger uses selective focus in each image, creating a psychological interpretation of space through technique. Renata Padovan takes photographic reality to the edge of abstraction in her cartographic explorations of territories, deepening the relationship between humans and nature. Ola Kolehmainen composes minimalist photographs, isolating fragments of architectural structures and giving them an individuality detached from their original context. Finally, Taj Forer builds ethnographic narratives through the accumulation of juxtaposed fragments, transforming objects into symbols.
