Women in front of and behind the camera and Spanish photography made between the 1950s and 1980s are the focus of the five exhibition proposals that will mark the landing in Valladolid of the international festival of photography and visual arts PhotoEspaña, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the event.
"For a few years the festival has had venues outside of Madrid, but we really wanted to be in Valladolid", highlighted the general director of PHotoEspaña, Claude Bussac, in her presentation, underlining the "interesting" trajectory of the city with the exhibitions related to the seventh art with municipal halls destined for its exhibition, as was San Benito for a time.
Precisely, this room, now converted into a Tourist Office, returns to its former use to host the first retrospective to be held in Spain of the Indian photographer Raghu Mai. Through around 40 works, the exhibition will show the look towards the wife of this veteran professional from the Magnum agency and at the same time a journey through the country's trajectory from the 60s to the present day, explained the director of the House of India, which has also framed this exhibition in the 75th anniversary of the country's independence.
The 80-year-old Indian artist will not be the only leading figure in photography in the Valladolid 'version' of PhotoEspaña. More than 80 works by Cristina García Rodero, the first Spaniard to form part of the aforementioned Magnum agency, will spin 'Lalibela, cerca del cielo', the exhibition that can be seen in the Municipal Hall of La Pasión. It is a series that the prestigious Spanish photographer made about the Christian community of Ethiopia, its ancestral rites and the people who participate in them.
For its part, the Las Francesas room will show the work of the Italian Donna Ferrato through 'Holly', a series that reflects the ravages of violence against women: «Donna has been doing this work for a long time. Long before it was more common to talk about this scourge, this professional was dedicated to following families and the consequences that this type of violence entails in the home”, Claude Bussac has meant in this regard.
Meanwhile, 'Lideresas', a visual essay with which Ana Amado wants to highlight discrimination against women in society, reproducing iconic images featuring men replacing them with female figures, is the project that can be seen abroad del Campo Grande, in an attempt also for any citizen to be able to approach this art without the need to enter a room.
All these exhibitions will open this Friday, June 17, and will end on August 21. The culmination of this landing is starred, starting on the 25th, by the opening of the exhibition 'Derivaciones. Photography in Spain between the 50s and the 80s at the Patio Herreriano Museum. Javier Hontoria, director of the same, has framed this inauguration in the 20th anniversary of the center and has detailed that the intention of this project, which has been working on for a year and a half and which has providers from all over Spain, wants to show the basic evolution of photography during these three decades and how it was the «springboard» or «exit ramp» to understand art today. The exhibition will be curated by Alberto Martín, one of the theorists who today knows the most about Spanish photography and its historiography, Hontoria has also pointed out. This last exhibition will run until November 13.
