Workshop in the Countryside – Xavier Ribas.
Cartographies of the body and the territory.
May 10, 11 and 12, 2019.
Contemporary photography of the territory has to deal with the complexity of globalization and its effects on the structures of power and the mechanisms of territorial control.
Description of the workshop:
The contemporary photographic landscape usually involves a distant gaze, a panoramic vision of the territory, a vision that is objective and objectual, slow, pictorial and large format. Examples of this are the works of Nadav Kander in China (Yangtze, The Long River, 2010), or Mark Power in Poland (A Tale of Two Songs, 2010); also the works of Simon Norfolk in Afghanistan (Burke + Norfolk: Photographs from the War in Afghanistan, 2011) or Donovan Wylie (Outposts: Kandahar Province, 2010), to mention
some of the most widely known.
In contrast to these representations of the territory which share a certain formal aesthetic, technical complexity, or logistical difficulty, we can identify another group of works that draw on criteria close to political geography, anthropology, archaeology, psychogeography or activism, such as, for example, the works of Allan Sekula (The Forgotten Space, 2010), or John Gossage (There and Gone, 1997), Ursula Biemann and Paulo Tavares (Forest Law, 2014), Lothar Baumgarten (Carbon, 1990), John Davies (The
British Landscape, 2004), or Fazal Sheikh (Erasure, 2015), among others.
Contemporary photography of the territory has to deal with the complexity of globalization and its effects on the structures of power and the mechanisms of territorial control. This workshop proposes a reflection on photographic representations of the territory with the purpose of investigating the political-aesthetic discourses that these articulate and the way they visualize the social and economic processes that intervene in the contemporary construction of the territory.
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Aims of the workshop:
To expand the concept of landscape photography.
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Audience:
The workshop is intended for photographers, teachers and students of photography, fine arts, image, audiovisual communication, and anyone interested in photography.
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Xabier Ribas
Xavier Ribas is a photographer, teacher of photography at the University of Brighton, and associate professor on the International Masters Degree in Photography at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. He studied Social Anthropology at the University of Barcelona and Documentary Photography at the Newport School of Art and Design (United Kingdom). His photographic work investigates disputed places and histories and geographies of abandonment. His latest works take the form of large polyptychs, often including texts, archival and video materials, as multiple ways to address the representation of temporary settlements, processes of urban exclusion, border territories, and geographies affected by extractive processes.
Ribas has participated in international exhibitions in, for example, the Museu d' Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS), the Stedelijk Museum, the Bluecoat Liverpool, the Museo Universidad de Navarra (MUN), Belfast Exposed, the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, the Centro Huarte de Arte Contemporáneo and the Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo. He has received awards, commissions and artistic residencies from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (2012-2015), the International Photography Research Network (2006), Commande Publique du Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (2006), and the Université de Toulouse II-Le Mirail (2007-2008), among others.
His publications include Xavier Ribas (Universidad de Salamanca, 1998), Sanctuario (Gustavo Gili, 2005), Geografías Concretas [Vallas Fronterizas de Ceuta y Melilla] (MUN, 2012), Concrete Geographies [Nomads] (Bside Books, 2012), Nitrato (Macba, 2014) and It Would Never Be Quite The Same Again (2017). He currently lives in London.
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Prices:
295 € (Workshop + full board and lodging in the “Casa dos Muros” + light snacks during the workshop)
265 € (Workshop + full board (without lodging) in the “Casa dos Muros” + light snacks during the workshop)
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Schedule:
Friday, May 10: Introduction and Workshop. 18:00 hrs – 21:00 hrs
Saturday, May 11: Workshop. 10:00 hrs – 14:00 hrs / 16:00 hrs – 20:00 hrs
Sunday, May 12: Workshop. 10:00 hrs – 14:00 hrs
Places are limited and will be filled strictly in order of registration.
***Registration open until the first day of the workshop