Espacio Telefonica Fundación
As I mentioned the other day, I went to the International Student Identification Card office to receive my ISIC card this past Tuesday. While I was there waiting for the woman to get off the phone, I looked around the office and found a lot of information for tourists and travelers in Madrid. I picked up a book with information on museums, shows, restaurants, and parks, and decided to take it with me. Along with a list of the above mentioned attractions, there were also pages dedicated to current exhibitions. I bookmarked several pages that interested me, and planned a solo-journey to one of them for later that day.
Antoni Arissa (1900-1980) was one of the most outstanding Spanish representatives of avant-garde photography. This exhibition will include a total of 160 black and white pictures that trace his career through Pictorialism and New Vision.
I was immediately drawn to Arissa: La Sombra y El Fotógrafo 1922-1936 at the Espacio Telefonica Fundación. I remembered 
learning about the two mentioned photography movements in one of my previous art history courses, and I wanted to see how this Spanish artist contributed to the larger picture. I also am a fan of Pictorialism, a photographic genre that draws influence from other artists such as the Pre-Raphaelites, because of its idealistic settings and often allegorical themes.
It turns out that Antoni Arissa is a little known Spanish photographer. Until this exhibition, his work was never displayed in a gallery setting. Most of the photographs mounted for viewing were comprised of the “restoration of Arissa’s negatives by the curators Valentin Vallhonrat and Rafael Levenfeld.” These images were never-before seen by the public eye, and there is a great possibility that Arissa, himself, never actually developed them. The rest of the collection included vintage prints of his work as well as various period objects.
Because Arissa is practically unknown to the art world, the only way to actually view his photographs is to visit the museum or buy the exhibit’s catalog. No individual prints or post cards were for sale in the gift shop, really disappointing me as I wanted to keep some of them for a personal collection. Most of his work are “sin título” or Untitled, most likely, again, because he never actually developed and edited them. Overall, I think I preferred his earlier work that corresponded to the Pictorialist genre more so than his New Vision and avant-garde photographs. His later repertoire focuses more on geometry and the play between light and shadows, and this composition between shapes and light is the main subject matter. In Pictorialism, however, people usually take the place as the subject, and this type of photograph is more easily relatable for me.
The entrance to the museum is free for all visitors, and I would definitely recommend a visit. Tours are given on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 12:00 PM in Spanish – unfortunately I have class all of those days (except for the 25th), so I am unable to attend these tours. Currently, in addition to this photography exhibition, the museum is showing an exhibit on the progression of telecommunication, images from social media, and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Abstracción biométrica. The latter, I visited as well:
An exhibition by the Mexican electronic artist that explores a personal, emotional, and evocative dimension in his work. The nine installations reconstruct the vital functions of the body – heartbeat, breathing, and voice – and attempt to interact with the audience through the use of technological tools, such as robotics.
Because it was an interactive space, I wanted to see what it was all about! Would I call it art? Let’s not get into that debate! But
I did enjoy some aspects of his work. One piece, entitled Pulse Room (2006), featured a ceiling full of twinkling light bulbs, each flicker representing the heartbeat of a previous visitor of the exhibit. I was able to add my heartbeat to the ceiling of light by holding onto pulse monitors. Another cool display was entitled Surface Tension (1992). Here, an image of an eye follows your movement as you pass by the wall on which it is projected. It wasn’t an exhibit which made me think too much, and hence, it didn’t take very long to walk through it. I did enjoy touching things, though!
