Besart Banco Espírito Santo Collection the Present: an Infinite Dimension
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BES ART_Capa_NOR.indd 1 17/12/08 19:15:09 _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 1 22/12/08 13:39:20 _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 2 22/12/08 13:39:20 BESart Banco Espírito Santo Collection The Present: An Infinite Dimension _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 2 22/12/08 13:39:20 _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 3 22/12/08 13:39:21 _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 4 22/12/08 13:39:21 When speaking to me about photography, a Brazilian friend of mine read an excerpt from Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida, which to me clarifies the mystery of the process: ‘What photography reproduces to infinity only happened once. It mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially.’ Also, ‘photo- graphy is nothing more than an alternate line of “Look”, “See”, “Here it is”; it points to a certain opposite.’ The Banco Espírito Santo photography collection allows for this ‘opposite’ experience through an anthological vision of photographic production from the 1980s to our current times. This collection travels through signs but also through the technical evolution of photographic representation. It shows the infinite diversity of contemporary production: from portrait to landscape, from conceptual art to photo-journalism, whether using the traditional principles of the analogue negative or the newest digital and image processing techniques. The BESart collection exhibited here is the most significant collection of con- temporary photography in Portugal, comprising work from modern artists to the youngest generation of creators. The public can now share this line of ‘Look’, ‘See’, ‘Here it is’ with us. José Berardo Honorary Chairman of the Fundação de Arte Moderna e Contemporânea – Colecção Berardo _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 4 22/12/08 13:39:21 _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 5 22/12/08 13:39:21 _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 6 22/12/08 13:39:21 Throughout its entire history, the Banco Espírito Santo has been active in cultural patronage, for instance with the Ricardo Espírito Santo Silva Foundation. Nowadays, photography has found its place as a relevant artistic expression in contemporary art. In 2004, the Banco Espírito Santo decided to make photography the main fo- cus of its cultural patronage policy, since it deems photography to integrate both innovation and being at the forefront, which is in line with the bank’s philosophy. Banco Espírito Santo, the patron of photography in Portugal, has been pro- moting and publicing many initiatives, including BES Photo, BES Revelação and partnerships with significant cultural agents. It recently inaugurated BES Arte & Finança, a space with unique characteristics, at Praça Marquês de Pombal, which is also intended for the promotion of photography and will contribute to the emergence of new talents in Portugal. Within this context, the BESart – Banco Espírito Santo Collection was initi- ated. The collection was started in 2004, with the acquisition of national and international works that are deemed relevant. It includes mainly works from the twenty-first century, so as to follow the current perspectives of contemporary art, which corresponds with the way the bank operates in its core activities, seeking to always be at the forefront of the global market. The bank has proudly provided all the necessary means to substantiate the Banco Espírito Santo collection and it is now time to present it to the public. The catalogue of the collection will be published simultaneously with the exhibi- tion organised by Museu Colecção Berardo and curated by María de Corral and Lorena Martínez de Corral, as this is the first time such a large part of the BESart – Banco Espírito Santo Collection is exhibited to the public. The BESart collection was developed due to the determination and effort of the curator Alexandra Fonseca Pinho, to whom I am deeply grateful for her excellent work. I would also like to show my appreciation to the entire team of Museu Colecção Berardo, to the curators for their excellent work and the extremely professional way it was carried out; to all authors of the texts which made this catalogue even richer; and also to all those who contributed to the success of the BESart project. Ricardo Salgado Chairman of the Executive Committee / Banco Espírito Santo _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 6 22/12/08 13:39:21 _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 7 22/12/08 13:39:21 _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 8 22/12/08 13:39:21 The BESart – Banco Espírito Santo Collection was founded in 2004 following the initiative of the President of the Executive Committee, who had the foresight of breaking new ground among Portuguese institutions, with the creation of an international collection of contemporary photography. I was offered the challenge of constituting a collection of works by contempo- rary artists who use photography as their medium. From the start, a number of approaches were adopted, that are reflected in the current structure of the collection: We started by acquiring works by both national and international renowned artists, creating a dialogue between their work and that of of artists from younger emerging generations. We have opted to collect representative pieces, instead of acquiring large series, to be able to include a greater number of artists with distinct bodies of work. We have favoured the acquisition of work produced in the twenty-first century, instead of opting for a retrospective collection, in order to best convey the unique vision of artists about our shared contemporaneity. This project aims to respond to the continuing evolution of art and to the new di- rections in which photography is used. In fact, photography is a medium familiar to all artists, but each displays very distinct formal approaches to it. Currently, the BESart collection consists of 451 works by 176 artists, which represent a wide range of generations and backgrounds. This diversity of artistic expression is one of the strengths of the collection, and it is through this variety of styles that we attempt to enrich the dialogue about the art of our times. The all-encompassing theme of the collection is contemporaneity, and underly- ing it is the subject of time, the same time that is suspended in the photographic image, and also the time that by passing will reveal the true value of the collection that is currently being formed. I would like to thank all those who through their advise, support, and enthusi- asm have made this project possible. Alexandra Fonseca Pinho Curator of BESart – Colecção Banco Espírito Santo _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 8 22/12/08 13:39:21 _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 9 22/12/08 13:39:21 _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 10 22/12/08 13:39:21 Contents 13 The Present: An Infinite Dimension María de Corral / Lorena Martínez de Corral 27 Exhibited works 367 BESart Banco Espírito Santo Collection 429 Authors’ biographies _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 10 22/12/08 13:39:21 _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 11 22/12/08 13:39:21 _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 12 22/12/08 13:39:21 María de Corral / Lorena Martínez de Corral The Present: An Infinite Dimension _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 12 22/12/08 13:39:21 _BES ART_UK NOR.indd 13 22/12/08 13:39:21 14 BESART / THE PRESENT: AN INFINITE DIMENSION Photography is a medium capable of immediately transforming the act of see- ing into an image of what we see. It is present in all parts of the Universe: it plays an educational role in all societies and in every part of our lives, whether it is private or public, personal or work, or the arena of commerce and advertising. Photography unveils desires and passions, fantasy and power, criticism and vio- lence, nostalgia and reality. In sum, it forms an immense archive of life. The exhibition The Present: An Infinite Dimension is a full overview of the pho- tography collection which the Banco Espírito Santo has assembled over the last four years, with over 400 works by more than 170 artists, both Portuguese and foreign, well-established and emerging. This highly varied collection of photo- graphic images offers us first-hand knowledge of the changes and advances that have taken place in contemporary art in the last twenty years. To collect is to capture a particular view on a period, and a collection must accept that art is the result of a creative, social and historical context. This exhibition springs from the Banco Espírito Santo’s desire to share the need to speak of the present with a broad cross-section of the public and to imagine a hypothetical future through artworks, as well as to offer a panoramic view on the world that only artists can give us. The BESart collection offers us a diversity of viewpoints, inviting all of us to reflect upon our reality, stimulated by works that illustrate both the marks of the past and diverse cultural, social, economic and political aspects of our present. The collection includes works on subjects such as the subjectivity of photo- graphy, a return to realism, and the relation between theoretical photography and general aesthetics. In contemporary art, photography has become somewhat less pragmatic in a technical sense, and more creative in a poetic one. In other words, it has become more a process than a medium. Historically, the photograph was a document traditionally associated with the rhetoric of an emotional language that has gone so far as to regulate the percep- tion and evolution of documentary images. Today, however, there are thousands of codes with which to interpret photography and its multiple readings. Until the 1980s, photography was barely accepted as art. That is why postmodernism forced the matter, showing us how photography (as an infinitely dispersed repre- sentation of reality) is the medium through which we can see everything.