Today, CentroCentro inaugurates European portrait photography since 1990, as part of the Official Selection of PHotoEspaña 2016, International Festival of Photography and Visual Arts.
The show offers a journey through the evolution of the genre of portrait photography during the past 25 years in Europe, and invites us to reflect on European identity, culture and history through the work of 33 photographers taken in distinct places on the continent.
The photographic portrait has a long history of both registering and creating identities. The works chosen for inclusion in the show form part of a European tradition of individual and collective representation. Taking as its starting point the fall of the Berlin Wall, and in a broader context the disappearance of the Iron Curtain, the aim of the exhibition is to provoke a confrontation with oneself through the scrutiny of different faces: looking at them is like entering a mirror and reaching a compromise between closeness and distance, fostering an empathy with our fellow humans. In this way, we discover Europe through its individuals, in photographs, via personal histories and distinctive identities that reflect Europe’s character, so varied and heterogeneous. Participating photographers include: Tina Barney, Sergey Bratkov, Koos Breukel, Michael Clegg & Martin Guttmann, Anton Corbijn, Christian Courreges, Luc Delahaye, Paola De Pietri, Rineke Dijkstra, Denis Drazacq, Alberto García?Alix, Jitka Hanzlová, Konstantinos Ignatiadis, Stratos Kalafatis, Nikos Markou, Boris Mikhailov, Jorge Molder, Lucia Nimcova, Adam Pa?czuk, Dita Pepe, Anders Petersen, Jorma Puranen, Thomas Ruff, Clare Strand, Beat Streuli, Thomas Struth, Juergen Teller, Hellen van Meene, Stephan Vanfleteren, Ari Versluis & Ellie Uyttenbroek andf Manfred Willmann.
The show was organized by CenterCenter and PhotoEspaña, and co-produced by the Nederlands Fotomuseum, Bozar Brussels and the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, in collaboration with the Dutch Embassy. It can be seen until August 28, on the 5th floor of CenterCenter. Entrance is free.
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.
CenterCenter is participating in PHotoEspaña for the third consecutive year. In 2014 it offered A Day in the Life of Madrid, while in 2015 it presented the second part of this same project, as well as Latin Fire; A Continent’s Other Photographs, and Develar y Detonar (Unveil and Detonate).
