Drama, Narrativity & Interdisciplinarity - photo Miami Solo Projects

Carlos Aires. Untitled (from the Series “Happily Ever After”), 2007. Galería Sandunga, Granada

By Paco Barragán

Nothing is what it looks like anymore: photography resembles painting, video looks like installation, sculpture becomes performative, and painting is all and nothing at the same time. And everything is integrated into photo-based media practices. Also, many artists no longer resort to a camera per se, but instead prefer to use an I-phone, capture an image on Google or simply manipulate a video still. In the end, it doesn’t matter how the image is made, as long as the concept is strong enough. And on purpose I say “image,” since the crossing between video and photography, and the fixed and the moving image, is becoming more and more common.

photo Miami’s Solo Projects section has been designed to highlight the oeuvre of several artists whose photo-based practices engage in critical and challenging contemporary discourse. At the same time, Solo Projects is a platform for the presentation of young emerging talent, or artists who are more established in their own countries, whom the fair wants to provide with wider international recognition and exposure.

Solo Projects does not present a concept-based exhibition, although the participating artists -Regina Galindo, Johann Kerstens, Carlos Aires, Juan Erlich, Sabine Dehnel, Augusto Alves da Silva, José Manuel Ballester, and Ixone Sádaba- all share, to a certain point, a dramatized interest in space and life, a predilection for intimate and psychological narrativities, and an interdisciplinary approach.

Up and coming Regina Galindo -exhibited by Prometeo Gallery di Ida Pisano, Milan-makes strong, but at the same time poetic, social and political performances in which the position of the woman in the world, and in Latin America in particular, is put into question. In “Island” we see the artist lying quietly immersed in her own piss. Ixone Sádaba -Artspace Witzenhausen, Amsterdam-also resorts to her body in order to reflect on personal identity in carefully and theatrically-staged settings where the intimate, the quotidian, and the familiar dialogue in search of human beings’ limits.

The at-first-glance neutral portraits with strong reminiscences of Art History of Sabine Dehnel, Augusto Alves da Silva, and Johann Kerstens reveal, on second look, the complexities of (the making of) identity. Sabine Dehnel -Galería Mas Art, Barcelona-goes back and forth between painting, photography, and sculpture conveying enigmatic non-portraits  -unemotional shots of women seen from behind- hinting at the “unheimlich” of human existence. For Augusto Alves da Silva -Galeria Fonseca Macedo, Azores- the portrait becomes an exciting tool for investigating the pathologies of the everyday and the psychological turbulences of the individual. This same interest is shared by Johann Kerstens -Artspace Witzenhausen- whose ongoing study of his daughter, Paula, achieves spectacular emotional depth and reveals the complexities of adulthood.

Carlos Aires and Juan Erlich also deal with intense psychic realities beyond normality and everyday life, although the latter resorting to animals in his behavioral investigation.  Carlos Aires -Galería Sandunga, Granada- presents a series of photos and a video of a young Mexican “werewolf” that ironically and masterly touch on aspects of the “uncanny,” giving rise to a romantic vision of a marginal character. Juan Erlich -Lyle O’Reitzel Gallery, Miami- also portrays “uncanny” and surrealistic looking animals, which have been digitally rendered in pictorial and deceptively-decorative settings.

And, finally, José Manuel Ballester -Galerie Pascal Vanhoecke, Paris- presents a series of photographs made in China that -unlike German objectivity- gives way to oneiric and politically-charged compositions, hinting at intense hidden realities.

Thus, photo Miami’s Solo Projects displays, in a challenging manner, the changing ideas and perspectives in photo-based video and media, and becomes an essential element in current contemporary artistic discourse. 

Paco Barragán is independent curator and artistic director of CIRCA Puerto Rico; head of the selection Committee of photo Miami; artistic director of Festival SOS 4.8 (Murcia); and curatorial advisor to the Artists Pension Trust (APT), New York. He is the author of The Art to Come/El arte que viene, (Subastas Siglo XXI, 2002) and The Art Fair Age/La era de las ferias