A SPIRIT NOW LONDON EVENT
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH EDITION TAKE5
Online event: 11 March 2021
Introduction written Marie-Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre (Founder & Director of Spirit Now London)
Published by Spirit Now London
Good morning to all of you.
Today we are travelling to Barcelona in the studio of Joan Fontcuberta.
We are very honoured to have him with us this morning.
Thank you, Joan, for taking the time to share with us your inspiration and the nature of your work.
Spirit Now London's mission is to be the closest to artistic creations by spending quality times with the artists.
I discovered Joan Fontcuberta through a beautiful book Vanishing Memories published by my friend Celine Fribourg (Editions take 5).
As she is a close member of our community, she offered to do a little introduction after my presentation on Joan's work.
Therefore she will make us discover this precious and rare book published in 30 copies.
I was immediately seduced by Joan F virtuosity but also his sense of humour.
Indeed in his works, he stages images that imitate in all points scientific approaches, journalistic reports, religious stories, speeches in museums ... except that everything is false.
Scientists demonstrate mermaids' existence; religious provide proof of miracles, art historians invent works that do not exist.
Therefore, we will spend a delightful moment with this fake specialist who uses humour to denounce through images and manipulation.
A small note on Joan Fontcuberta
He was born in 1955 in Barcelona, where he lives and works.
He is a multidisciplinary man: teacher, critic, historian, artist, exhibition curator.
He is a significant figure in contemporary plastic photography.
From 1979 to 1986, he was a professor at the Faculty of Bellas Artes in Barcelona. He continues to teach as visiting professor in different centres and universities in Europe and the USA.
Also a researcher of 20th-century Spanish photography, he collaborates as a curator with institutions such as the Ministry of Culture. He has published several works devoted to the history, aesthetics and pedagogy of photography.
In 1996, he was appointed artistic director of the Rencontres Photographiques in Arles (France).
He also has been appointed guest curator for the Montreal photography Month in 2015.
Fontcuberta's works are part of the permanent collections of many museums.
The list is quite extensive, so I will only name a few.
MOMA New York; Musée National d’Art Moderne / Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Art Institute of Chicago / Los Angeles County Museum of Art Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
He is now exhibiting 38 Photography at the Museum of Andorre with this beautiful title« Kintsugi « from an ancestral Japanese tradition of repairing the broken ceramic with golden dust-filled in the crack.
He won several photography prices including:
In 1998 the Premio National de Fotografia, given by the Spanish Cultural Ministry.
He received several distinctions :
He was made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 1994 in France for his photographic work but also for literature as an author the National Essay Prize for an essay on photography.
In 2013 he received the prestigious Hasselblad International Award in Photography for his entire career.
It is now time for me to welcome our guests :
Spirit Now London's members for are here with us this morning.
And thank you for the friends and collectors from Editions take 5 that are attending this webinar today.