Joan Fontcuberta

(Barcelona, 1955)

Caligramas de Luz, 1993

Photosensitive paper exposed to ligth / Papel fotosensible expuesto a la luz
40 x 30 cm.

[ENG] The artist has been gathering a variety of objects from nature (flowers, leaves, branches) which have been picked up from the areas of Mont-roig and Majorca, in order to place them on photosensitive paper and expose them later to the light, using the photogram technique, so that the objects themselves create their own representation. These images, made from paper of different tonalities, are like mosaics when combined with others which are similar to them; however they are not fixed and, in due time, they will degenerate just like the objects that have created them.

This series, which only appear to be decorative, refer to the floral prints that have interested Fontcuberta before, given that they provoke interesting epistemological and linguistic questions such as the borders between reality and its representation, the natural and the artificial, and the nature of photography and its supposed objectivity. The forms often recall certain automatic outlines and Miro-like caligrammatics.

[CAST] El artista recoge diversos elementos naturales (flores, hojas, ramas) de los paisajes de Mont-roig y Mallorca, para colocarlos después sobre papel fotosensible y exponerlos a la luz—mediante la técnica conocida como fotograma—para que ellos mismos crearan su propia representación. Estas imágenes, obtenidas sobre papeles de distintas tonalidades, conforman una suerte de mosaicos al alternarse con otras de naturaleza similar, pero que no están fijadas y que se irán degradando con el tiempo tal y como los objetos que las han originado.

Se trata de unos trabajos decorativos sólo aparentemente, que remiten a los estampados florales que ya antes han interesado a Fontcuberta, puesto que, en el fondo, suscitan interesantes cuestiones epistemológicas y lingüísticas. A saber, las fronteras entre la realidad y su representación, lo natural y lo artificial, y la naturaleza misma de la fotografía y su supuesta objetividad. Las formas que se nos presentan recuerdan a veces, además, ciertos trazos automáticos y caligramáticos mironianos.

Installation view at Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, 2002

Caligrams of light, 1993 Photosensitive paper exposed to light 40 x 30 cm

Caligrams of light, 1993 Photosensitive paper exposed to light 40 x 30 cm

Installation view of the exhibition held at the Antoni de Barnola Gallery, Barcelona, September – October, 1993