Art Nexus N° 58 novembre 1998 FotoFest'98 In memori am Geraldo de Barros (1923-1998)
The more interesting and unique of De Barros' works, are not the abstract photograms but rather the expressionistic images where he started with a photographic negative obtained with a camera and then scraped, painted on, andlor cut the negatives.
Geraldo de Barros. Homage 10 Picasso, 1949.
FERNANDO C ASTR O RAMIREZ appear prdty inhospitable, but HUllS The historical exhibit Memory of a tunians themselves afe -all things City: The Photography Studio of Ellg(,lI(, I t was the end of February and being equal- preUy hospitable. More COl/rret 1863-1935 was shown at the FotoFest got started in Jlouston. over, in 1998, when El Nino is wreck TrJ.nsco Tower. Curiously, the building Around the Rice University area pe ing havoc all over the world, fair itself, a sort of Empire State for the destrians began to appear! No other weather welcomed FotoFest's guests. eighties, is a modern architectural trait is necessary in Houston to iden All flowers bloomed, al! trees were landmark in Houston just as much as tify yOIl as a foreigner. If you are not green, all sixty-some exhibits opened. the Courret studio is an art nouveau driving or jogging and YOll are walk In what follows 1 will only review or architectural landmMk in Lima. ing, you do nut live in Huuston. Its mention this year's Latin American ex Memory ala City was first presented at empty streets, might make Houston hibits. the Musen de 101 Naci6n in Lima in
Eugene Courret. Horlencia Cac<1r<1s. 1891. Glass negative in blac~ and white. Courtesy: Fotolest. 1998.
Eugene Courr,t. Chinese Merchant. 1896. Glass negative in black and white. Fotolest. 1998.
58 1994. It is based on a mther idiosyn deserving of easy simplifications. arc the black and mestizo wet nurses, cratic selection by curator/photogra Eduardo Pineda, curator from the San who breast fed the children of the pher Jorge Deustua from the Francisco Museum of Modern Art, has wealthy. In fact, in Lima the exhibit thousands of negatives at the eourret traced him to Tahiti, shortly before his showed vis Ii vis these images a list of Archive currently housed in the arrival in Lim.:l. It would not be unrea the go.ing-prices of the day for wet Biblioteca Nacional of Lima. sonable to suppose, therefore, that he nurses of different ethnic origin (none The importance of the work of might have been influenced by the white). Courret in Pem cannot beover-empha more humanist side of the Enlighten Equally compelling are the portraits sized. [t encompasses over seventy ment insofar the "other" is concerned. of Japanese and Chinese immigrants. years of republican Peruvian life: from In spite of its class perspective, how Many of the latter were brought to the guano economic boom of the ever, Memo ry of a City is exceptional Peru as coolies to provide cheap labor 1860's, through the War of the Pacific, for its compelling visual power. To its for the landowning oligarchy. the Aristocratic Republic (The term, conceptual credit, it docs show how Courret's family portraits show how perhaps too benevolent, belongs to his the power to shape national ideology readily the Asian immigrants became torian Jorge 13.:ls.:ldre) .:lnd the thrust for was-for.:l crucial period of Peruvian integrated with the local population modernization of the so-called Ullcellio history-in the hands of the landown and how soon many became prosper Le~ui(5ta. Although there is some va ing oligarchy and new industrialists ous members of Peruvian SOCiety. lidity to the curator's premise that the and businessmen. At one of Houston's most interest Courret studio-the most expensive Recent research shows that, at the ing exhibition spaces, DiverseWorks, studio in Lima- represented a well turn of the century, economic power another exhibit entitled Stories about to-do clientele; it is not the case that shifted from old landowning families Us: Photugraphs frum Juarez, made its the studio did not depict anything but to more recent European immigrants; point of view conspicuous. Here the the world of the well-to-do. Memory of among tht!m, Gt!rmans and Italians. vision came from photojournalists na a City, however, pursues the memo The images in the exhibit revolve tive to the El Paso/Juarez area, on the ries of .:l whiLe European upper class around the social world of the eco Mexico-U.s. border. The clash of cul ancestor. At least the 1994 version of nomic eLites who, if given a chance at tures and lifestyles plus the border the exhibit had a few images of the many a "costume party", would mer syndrome result in a violence whose thriving mestizo middle classes- al rily imitate the eighteenth century density may very well be unmatched though shown in group and in smaller European aristocrats-in spite of the in the continent. The images give tes prints. Tn Houston, these last images fact that their heads had already rolled timony of the impact unscrupulous were altogether gone. Courret seems during the French Revolution. Perhaps industry, dnlg traffic and il1ega I migra to have been a complex character un- the most moving images in the exhibit tion have on the city of Juarez/El Paso.
Geraldo de Barros. Cui Oul. 1949. M i ~ed media. Various dimensions. Geraldo de Barros. The Girl with a Shoa. 1949. M i ~ed media. Various dimensions.
59 almost immunized us as spectators to undiluted death. Contextualization and textualization are tools that give mean ingoock to the corpses. Viewing them is "easier" if. we know that who they are and thai their death resulted from drug related violence, or simply from living: in the margins of the dominion of law as is the case of yowlg girl'i whuare am tinuaUy fowld in the desert murdered and raped. Perhaps Ulat is another im portant aspcctofthisshow: tb.... t it brings forth, issues of representation in the documentary mode with a renewed sense of urgency. Finally, the exhibit is of political interest as it shows a ?lSSible microcosm of any Latin American COlm try whose fortune has been left in the hand:iuf unconhnlled forces. Sicilrdi-Sanders Gall ery, the Latin Ernesto Rodriguez, With few established, a/fordable educalionallacililies in Cd. Ju;rtZ, school is often American art gallery of Houston, opted laughlin makeshift outdoor environments where students must endure extreme weather ccmdltions. On fo r a more subdued exhibit for FotoFest this June 1997 day in the Colonia Toribio Ortega, lemperaturts rou /0 140 degrtes during schoo/time. Oil Type C print. 22 x 28 in. Courtesy: Case deles Nn~ricas. '98: Traces the Class: The Photographic Work of Cera/do de Unrros 1948-1951. It was a long overdue tribu te to the Ura- This exhibit is, in a sense, anti theti mooe of the south to north crossing of 7ilian pioneer of avant garde photogra cal to the one at Transco Tower: gone the Rio Grande or thl:! daily walk of a phy in Latin America. are the eleg<."mt and strict conventions young woman toward s a Inllq ll iluuvru, Sevl:!nty-five-year-old De Barros died of nineteenth century studio portrai acquire epic dimensions, unexpected shortly after this exhibition. His daugh ture; they have been substituted for the symbolism, and poetic grandeur. They tl:!r Fabiana reports that the renewed in spontaneous and flexible compositions could very well be visual verses of that terest in his wnrk had brought him a of contemporary photojournalism. In great ep ic poem, Tile SlIlIs/olle, of the great deal ofhappintS.'iand had in.'ipired fact, here we havea clear case in which recentl y deceased Mexican man-of-Ict him to take up photography again. Un the parameters of art are besides the ters, Octavio !'az. til recently, Dc Barros was virtually UJl point; insteaJ it is imagl:! milking: the Then, of course, there are the known outside his nati ve Brazil and more important cultural ca tegory tha t mrpses. Their display poses difficult even there he couJd have gone down in is rclevanLlmages in the JOI.:umentary issul:!."1 in a world where the media has art history merely as one of the pioneers of concrete art. His photographic revival JaIme Balilerel . On 21 September '993, a coYOle (I perscn who hllps WOUld-btl illIlga/s Immigrants /0 began in 1993 w hen the Musee d e cross th,l btmI8r) wafches a mojado (pejoratively frans /a ted as "we/bad; crossln9'he fiver, while U.S L'Elysee of Lausanne showed a major Bolder pltrol a~nl5 continue/o guard th' Plren/9 'nlemacJonal Paso d6J Nort9. Type C print. 40 x 60 in. retrospective of his work. Curiously, some of his images had surftlced in the 1978 Latin American Colloquium of Photugraphy in Mexim City and one of them, Menirm do SIl;xl/o, is featured un dated in the catalogue Hecho en Lntilloomerica (Made ill utili America ). Whether it was because the idcologic.l1 preferences of that colloquium did not favor the kind of expressionistic ma nipulated imageofDe Rarros,orhecause ihl date, 1949, was not noticed or known, De BamlS' true recognition as a pioneer in La ti n American photugraphy had to wait fiftt::t:n more years. Most of the work featured in the Traces 011 IIw Glass exhibit result(..od from an ex perimental photographic workshop at the Museu de Artc de Sao Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP) 1b.1 t De Barros conducted. The resull ing exhibit, FotoformflS, earned De Barn)s a feIlow exhibition of Cuban-American, Puerto ship from the French govcrtlmtmt to Rican-American, and Mexican-Ameri study art in Paris in 1951. In that French can photographers. The idea of doing so city he apparenLly came in contact with was to consciously give up the power to some members of the earlier European decide wlmt others ought to decide-for photographic avant gaede like Cartier better or worse. It is remarkable tlmt this Bresson and Brassai. ironically, his Eu gesture and its ensuing practice is not ropean experience seems to have taken yet widespread even in this age of p0- De Barros o n a path away from photog litical correctness. raphy. In Zurich, he met Max Bill and At any rate, all four curators of Look bec-dffie t!Xtremdy interestt.'d in b'Taphic ing at tile 90s made risky propositions design, the ("Oncept of St!rial pmductinn, and that trait is the strength a nd weak and the mass delivery of artwork. ness of the pmject. The visual edroicism Charlcs Henri Favro.i, the chief L'OIll of the exhibitio ns is speUed out by the menta tor o f his retrospective a t titleof Fernau's exhibit nu: Eclectic Nine Lausanne, has noted that when De ties. Where there is coherence, it must be Barros produced FofoFormns (Plioto found not in the intrinsic iconic proper slmpes) he had never seen the works of ties of the works but rother on the way Man Ray; nor, one may guess, of L.lszlo they relate to an element extrinsic to Moholy-Nagy. In deed, some of De them. In the case ofOsvaldo sanchez the Barms' ilbstract photogrilms suggest a curatorial line is to tillite by dissension certain proximity In the work of those with th E.> icons of Mexican-ness. Ana artists, but De BamJs' point nf departure Casas, on the other hand, proposE.>S was different: namely, to t~t the photo works in the documentary mode where graphic negative as illlll.."liium for print the works point to something beyond ing ona par with Lithogrnphy, woodcut, the mere record. Some of J~ Antonio etching.. etc. It was nlmost incvitnble tlmt Rodngue'L's chosen few might have very one of the results should have been pho well fit Sanchez's intention, but tograms. Rodriguez does not seem to be con The more interesting a nd unique of Dc cerned with Mexican-ncss ilS a positive Barros' works, however, are not theab or negative p..lfi1 metcr, but r.1l her with strnct photogrnms but rather the e-xpres images that somehow show the vestiges sinnistir images whE.>re hE.> sta rted with a of our modem century in the imminent photographic negative obtained with a century that is yet to be defined. camera a nd then scraped, p
61 privy to a conversation tlwt does not really concern us. The phenomenon of the medium of photography as a tool for communica tion alT}ong peoples for whom it is alien, and who, until recently, were only the subjects and not the agents of photogra phy, is of great ethnographic interest. This photographic communication act that begins and ~nds in the same Native American cummunity is reminiscent of TAFOS' (Talleres de Fotografia Socia\) efforts to intcgrateAndean communities through photography. TAFOS photog raphers arc elected by their own com munities to be their image-makers. The images thus obtained are addressed to their own communities and other simi lar communities. Thus all members of the communication act belong to the Maruch Santlz Gem.z. Our Ancestors Bellels same community: the image-maker, the sories. To Cure a Child who Drolls, 199B. Black line article. We drink from its surfnce, subject and the view~r. and wh ite photograph. 7,0 x 4,7 in. perish at its depths. Woman sustains life Although this review addresses only in the amniotic fluid around her womb four wtinAmerican exhibits at FotoFest If a child dro lls a lot. this is what must be done: th e mother of the chi ld goes to find three carrying within her the mystery of pro '98, other Latin American exhibits libellulas, the insects must be pla ced near the creation. Yet, woman who is fluid, who should be, at least, mentioned. Contem ch ild's mouth, wh ile you say: . Swa llow your is life sustaining, must dive into her own porary Brazilian Photography from the sa liva! Swallow your sal iva ! Swallow your d~pths to find herself, to find in depth a joaquim Paiva Collectioll, was important saliva!". But it must be said only three limes habitable territory. insofar as Paiva is one of the few Latin otherwise the chi ld will get worse. Maruch Santiz G{Jm~z's works from American art collectors who has focused the series Creel1cias chamlda (Chamu/u in photography. Other notable exhibits Beliefs) Me intended, according to cu were "Caos urbano (Urban Chnos)" by rator Ann Casas, to preserve and trans Eustaquio Neves, F./ fila dd tiempn: mit tradition"l beliefs to her fi!t(}grufuis de Mexico (TIu: Edge of Time: Native-American people from Plwtogrnphs of Mexico) by Mariana II one eals any food Chiapas. In spite of her didactic moti Yampolsky, Paisajcs il1vcntados (}nvcnted that has been nibbled vations, however, her simple images Landscapes) by Carlos Diaz, and the work by a cat, one wi ll get a are extraordinarily beautifully, concep of V"ldir Cruz in Descllbrimientos dd snory voice, tually powerful and iconically persua Meeting Place(Discoveries of tire Meetillg siv~. If Casas's statement is correct, Place). Maruch Santiz Gomez. Our Ancestors Beliefs only by accid~nt w~ find Chamu/a Re On the ninth day of FotoFest an un series. Do not eat what a Cat has Nibblr:d, 199B. liefs in this ~x hibit-as if we were usually strong and cold wind surprised Black and white photograph. 7,0 x 4.7 in. and chilled the few foreigners who had not yet left Houston. It broke off the branches of many a strong oak tree dis lod ging new nesl'l and blowing away autumn leaves that had not yet becom~ part uf the soil. Perhaps it was a warn ing that El Nino had yet expressed itseU fully in this region. As I write this essay, the air over Houston is almost unbreathablc on account of the smoke from the many fires from the dry Mexi can forests. EI Nino sees no borders, re spects no schedule, promises nothing, spares nobody.
Fernanda Callra Ramfl"flz Art cr itic . 62