The exhibition space at Fernán Gómez. Centro Cultural de la Villa participates once again in PHotoEspaña with two photography shows included in the Official Selection of the International Festival of Photography and Visual Arts: Juana Biarnés. Against the Current and Cristina de Middel. Muchismo.
Both shows can be visited from June 2nd to July 28th, Tuesday through Sunday, 10 to 21 hours, entrance free.
Juana Biarnés. Against the Current
Curated by Chema Conesa, this exhibition introduces the little-known work of the woman considered to be Spain’s first female photojournalist. A courageous woman who made a place for herself in a man’s world and captured the spirit of an era through her camera lens.
The photographic legacy of Juana Biarnés (Terrasa, 1935) is the first-person testimony of a key period in 20th century history: a visual and social chronicle of the Franco dictatorship and the advent of an incipient democracy. Featured in the show are 90 of her photos, in which she portrayed many of the most significant figures of the 1960s and 70s, including Jackie Kennedy, Louis Armstrong, Marisol, Yul Brynner, Salvador Dalí, Jack Lemmon, Orson Wells, and Roman Polanski, among others; as well as the Beatles, with whom she managed to finagle an exclusive interview while on their airplane.
Her work, affirms Conesa, “exudes intimacy and sincerity, without unnecessary adornments; and her persistence in getting the shot, the outstanding image which should explain everything, as her father always counseled her. A resolve required by someone who swam against the current.”
Cristina de Middel. Muchismo
The second show on view at Fernán Gómez. Centro Cultural de la Villa presents the work of another woman, the photographer Cristina de Middel (Alicante, 1975), one of the most acclaimed contemporary Spanish photographers.
The show offers an overview of the prolific photographer’s career, with more than 300 photos, including some her most celebrated series. In Muchismo De Middel shares an unfiltered look at her output during these past years. The pictures are all prints from her inventory with the variations and adaptations corresponding to fairs, exhibition spaces and curated shows. With these photos she recounted her experiences, now, as if they were words in a sentence, she plays with them, rediscovers them and questions the making and repetition of photographic prints.
In 2012, De Middel published a book, Afronautas, which was a reaction to the limitations of documentary language when faced with describing and explaining the world. The relationship between photography, reality and truth, together with the role played by mass media, became the priority of her artistic concerns.
PHotoEspaña 2016
The 19th edition of PhotoEspaña, the International Festival of Photography and Visual Arts, presents, from June 1st to August 28th, 94 exhibitions featuring the work of 330 artists and an ample program of activities aimed at both professionals and the public at large. The festival will take place in Madrid, Alcalá de Henares, Alcobendas, Lanzarote, Zaragoza, Murcia and Segovia. The present edition closes a three-year cycle in which the Festival has focused on distinct geographical areas. If in its 2014 and 2015 editions it looked at Spanish and Latin American photography respectively, PHotoEspaña 2016 offers a vision of photography on the European continent.
