I have always seen architecture as art, both when viewing it in person and in photographs, and at the same time I believe that photography is art, but I had never seen architecture from the perspective of a specific situation, taking into account the surrounding environment.
From every exhibition I attend, I learn something or see different styles, sometimes messages I had not considered before, innovative techniques. Art is something that depends on the imagination, and I believe that imagination has no limits; it depends on the vision of each artist.
In the case of photography, which for me is an art form, the same thing happens. I have seen many exhibitions of this type that focus on people, their souls, landscapes, animals, streets, buildings, street photography, but this exhibition focuses on architecture, apparently, but with a different view.
As they were photographs and all of them were framed and behind glass, I encountered the major problem of reflections, which I think was the most serious I have ever faced because there were windows in front of the photographs and it was a sunny day, so the struggle between the light, the reflections and my own reflection became noticeable.
I had to take most of the photos at an angle, but I hope they can be appreciated more or less well.
In addition, on that day at the El Ateneo gallery, which is one of my favourites because it shows three exhibitions at the same time and because of the calibre and quality of the exhibitions, there was an event where a film was being shown, so there were quite a lot of people there. The struggle between reflections and people coming and going complicated the shots, but I think I was able to bring you something decent.
As for the exhibition, it is called ‘Situated Architecture’ and the artist is Guindo Cimadomo. This artist's project moves away from traditional architectural photography and focuses instead on sociability, the environment surrounding the architectural object.
The question raised by this photographic exhibition is whether architecture shapes the environment or whether people adapt to spaces, objects and forms.
The photographs show buildings, and I did not recognise them simply by looking at them, but they are not shown in their entirety, only in part, so that only the architect who built them or someone who is an expert on the subject would recognise them. They are international and well-known buildings, but the aim is not to show them in themselves but rather the social interactions they involve, people walking around, the environment with the spaces.
The viewer's attention is therefore focused on the details and the spontaneous presence of human beings, everyday life, what is happening at that moment. The photographs are spontaneous, unplanned, informal, capturing what is happening at that moment alongside the architecture, rather than the architecture itself as the centre or as an important object. It is like the backdrop of reality, what is happening in that place.
These are not photographs that show buildings in isolation, but rather accompanied by real life, the movement that is generated around them, life itself. The buildings do not seem inert, but rather the very things that happen around them give them life.
Architecture is not separated from people, but rather a whole is created in the composition, which is what we see when we go out onto the street. As the name of the exhibition suggests, it alludes to the situations that occur in the places where these architectural beauties are located, but not separated from them entirely, rather united with them. I believe that this is what each of the photographs seeks to convey.
It goes beyond the artistic and links it to experiences, to life, to events, to the people who bring everything to life. This point of view is generally ignored, but here it makes us reflect on what these forms are without the presence of people.
The author of these photographs is a professor in the Department of Art and Architecture at the University of Malaga and focuses on the urban, on the relationship with people, with what happens around architecture, bringing this art and its history to life.
Seeing architecture from another point of view makes us reflect and appreciate the environment in which we live in a different way, and I think... if our eyes do not rest on architecture, what is it? We are an essential part of it all, then.
Thank you very much for joining me today. I wish you a very good Sunday. See you soon.
Amonet.
All photographs are my own.
