DE FACTO. JOAN FONTCUBERTA. 1982-2008

I recommended you an interesting exhibition: “De Facto. Joan Fontcuberta 1982-2008. “From nature photography to the nature of photography: That might summarize the artistic career of Joan Fontcuberta.

In this exhibition are showed a selection of works from eighteen of the artist’s projects. In these works Fontcuberta tries to explain, poetically and ironically, the role of the image perceived as a document. He suggests a critical practice of photography. The artist rejects the simple description of reality, which has been historically the traditional concept in photography, so he investigates with humour and imagination in the paradox of the image.

Before starting the exhibition to understand it better I recommended you to watch the documentary where the artist explains their works and read the supporting text to fully capture the real meaning of these images. Like a kind of provocation, he organizes photographic jokes that often question the basis of knowledge (the science ant the monopoly of the reality). The works seen here include Herbarium (fake biological and botanical discoveries), Googlerama (a series of photo-mosaics using Google) and Sputnik (a story about a Russian astronaut who is still lost in the space).

But the project that more shocked me it is “Desconstructing Ossama”. In this work Fontcuberta explains the theory that all the images we see of Al Qaeda are part of a vast conspiracy to manipulate the viewers. The men in the images are, in fact, actors. In 2006 Ben Kalish and Ben Sallad, photojournalists for Al-Zur discovered that a leader of Al Qaeda’s military wing was in reality an actor and singer who had appeared in soap operas (the lies of power, the power of lies).

Finally, Fontcuberta is more interested in the philosophical possibilities than the pictorial qualities of photography because he makes us think as much as look.