Exhibition “Via Latina”

This is a series of close-ups on the eyes of painted characters in sanctioned murals and unsanctioned graffiti in Buenos Aires.  Recent regulations and policies governing street art have created a mural paradise in the city. Street artists only need the permission or commission of the owner of the property, and neighbourhoods and businesses have been quick to see the advantages of the lively atmosphere these works of street art add to their environment. There are many unsanctioned works of graffiti as well, and it is, in fact, not always easy to tell the difference between the two categories.

As these images on the walls have become rather everyday pieces of the environment in many districts, inhabitants of the city are now often followed by the eyes of all types of painted characters, of all sorts of human figures, the cat woman, alien creatures or even minimalist abstractions. When focusing on the eyes of real people up close, the world around, and even most of the face becomes distorted, blurred, and irrelevant. Concentrating on the eyes of painted mural characters has a similar effect in some respects; it is, however, also a radically different experience. These are eyes that are “looking” at us as we are passing by, but in our hurry we rarely slow down or stop to examine them closely. I wanted to experiment with slowing down, stopping and examining them the way we almost never do. The result is a collection of Buenos Aires eyes, following us as we walk the streets of the city.

Zsolt Bátori born in Budapest, Hungary. He earned his PhD in philosophy at Rutgers University, NJ, USA, and he specializes in aesthetics and the philosophy of art, especially in visual arts and photography. During his doctoral studies at Rutgers, Zsolt also attended a number of courses in photography, and he continues to complement and enrich his theoretical work with an active photographic practice.

Zsolt has been teaching philosophy of art and photography theory courses at various universities in the United States, Hungary and Argentina. He is an associate professor at Budapest University of Technology and Economics and a research fellow at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. Zsolt’s current research is focused on interpreting and evaluating photographs. He has been exhibiting internationally as a fine art photographer. Zsolt is a member of the Executive Committee of the European Society for Aesthetics and the International Association for Aesthetics. He is also the founder and artistic director of PH21 Gallery, Budapest.

This is a series of photographs taken from a window of a flat in the centre of Buenos Aires. This was a chance observation; the window overlooked a rooftop on one of the neighbouring buildings where a little boy was practicing football. He was alone and completely lost in his activity. His bright coloured Club Atlético River Plate jersey is not only a symbol of the aspirations of many Argentinian kids of his age, but its glaring white and red are also in strong contrast with the dark and pale tones of the city architecture around him. It is not poverty that surrounds him, though; the scene is not taking place in a poor neighbourhood but in the busy city centre. It is the random visual mess of cables, construction materials and the decaying walls and windows consumed by mildew that define the stage for his performance. For he is concentrating on a performance, and as the world around him becomes irrelevant, almost ceases to exist, it is only his game is what matters. It is the seriousness of his concentration that is most captivating. He is alone and he never bothers to look up to notice his real audience, the photographer in the window. His carefully crafted movements and the acknowledgement of the cheers of the crowd in his make-believe stadium propel him from the real to the imaginary. The imaginary takes over. He is not on the bleak rooftop but in the stadium, playing perhaps the game of his life, scoring the winning goal for his team.

Zsolt Bátori born in Budapest, Hungary. He earned his PhD in philosophy at Rutgers University, NJ, USA, and he specializes in aesthetics and the philosophy of art, especially in visual arts and photography. During his doctoral studies at Rutgers, Zsolt also attended a number of courses in photography, and he continues to complement and enrich his theoretical work with an active photographic practice. Zsolt has been teaching philosophy of art and photography theory courses at various universities in the United States, Hungary and Argentina. He is an associate professor at Budapest University of Technology and Economics and a research fellow at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. Zsolt’s current research is focused on interpreting and evaluating photographs. He has been exhibiting internationally as a fine art photographer. Zsolt is a member of the Executive Committee of the European Society for Aesthetics and the International Association for Aesthetics. He is also the founder and artistic director of PH21 Gallery, Budapest.

Far from Tijuana ... A large area like the City and Defence met. A district business, built on a former garbage dump, framed highways and devices such effective urban walls. At the edge of its neighborhoods, Mexico adopts a center financial one wants worthy of the name. The seats of large firms national and international rub shoulders huge fortunes. Life quasi - autarky in the hills of one of the city polluted in the world. A real job generator. Safe or real estate Eldorado: everyone plays their part between buildings of glass and concrete carcasses, English lawns and vacant lots. Santa Fe unfolds like an urban territory at the margin space site, reflecting a company splits and apparent standardization of the world.

Nicolas Landemard (b. 1974) one of these professional photographers that have the magic eye, the one that gives us to see where we would see little or not, but in any case he knows how to do it. As almost all photographers when Nicolas Landemard must speak of himself, he expresses it in photos. Nicolas LANDEMARD is somehow a survivor. Born in France, raised in Africa. Went through studied history and political sciences, he embraces professional photography late. An art to which he was introduced very early into a family photo fans. Went through the school of the assistantship, he quickly launches as a freelance and works so that in institutional and press. Alternating different projects, he uses all the techniques of photography according to its desires and its research. Far from being confined to what he does, hating the boxes and labels, he held since this unsettling ability to not be where we expect; reportages, portraits, illustrations, black and white, color ... He sees photography as a huge playground (or therapy).

While the 2016 Olympic machine is remodeling its hosting city Rio de Janeiro into an even more charming place, amateur daily sport activities have been long since shaping its social fabric. Rio de Janeiro's curvaceous landscape is the quotidian theatre for thousands of people practicing former and present Olympic sports. Whether cyclers or runners on the promenades, or handball players on city's beaches, their metropolitan routine contributes to create the collective sense of space, transforming the nature into a huge free-of-charge outdoor gymnasium. And it is here, where the magic happens: Rio's sport natural theatres become the places where different cultures sociably meet and, freely and fearlessly, experience their collective identity.

Lara Ciarabellini (b. 1971), Italian photographer, works on collective memory and identity, and their representation in visual arts. She holds a Master degree in Photojournalism and Documentary photography from London College of Communication (2011-2012). Her recent achievements are the Humanistic Photography award by 2015 Fodar Biennal of Photography (Bulgaria); the nomination for the mentorship program for emerging photographers LOOKBetween - part of the LOOK3 festival -, in Charlottesville (USA); the presentation of her paper “Collective memory and social landscape photography” in the framework of the conference “Museum of Memory” at Plymouth University (UK); the second place in the 2014 portfolio review during the Bratislava Month of Photography. She is distributed by Anzenberger Agency. She published her first monograph “Somnambulism” with Kehrer in July 2015. She widely exhibits in Europe: London, Berlin, Dublin, Rome, Savignano, Tbilisi, Bratislava, Slupsk (Poland), Vienna, Lubiana. Next exhibitions: Riga and Budapest.

“Ruin is the secret soul of every construction” R.SMITHSON, 1972. “La Playa” is an abandoned hotel in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. During the years of violence that shook down this region, federal police settled on it. Photography seems to seal and inform about a reality, but to my understanding it always overcome it. This Project is not only about a story or a documentary search, it´s about to shape a poetic, political and social commitment. A 123 room hotel, all look the same, all look different. As if it was archaeology, all rooms in this hotel seem to give small staging of reality, in the way of small theatres, The reality of a city, of a history, of a civilization, of what´s left of a place, of what’s left of ourselves. Because of its history, Ciudad Juarez has become, to my understanding, a myth, place of mythology, of boundary, of glamorous years for prankish Hollywood stars, of violence, of feminicide, of no man’s land… The reality of Ciudad Juarez, doesn’t only include local Mexican reality but, I strongly believe, the one of a global politics, a worldwide economy, a changing society, uneven and with challenges to face. With this Project I wanted to work about Ciudad Juarez, getting away from the images we already know, from the idea of exceptional and local. Questioning about what remains, temporality, the leftovers and the absences through a hotel’s architecture, which, by definition, is a transit place and not one of permanence. Searching the midpoint between memory and oblivion.

Azahara Gomez (b. 1983, Madrid). She currently lives between Madrid and México city working for different publications as freelance photographer for, Accent, Travel & Leisure, Vice, Life & Style, Think Tank Media, etc. She studied photography and sociology in the Sorbonne, Paris. Her theoretical field studies were based on the representation of the disappeared in Argentina. She worked for several years in Magnum Photos in Paris on different exhibited and published projects. During these last years she’s been focused on personal photographic projects that tend to a visual anthropology. “Buscando a Marcos”has been exposed in different cultural centers over Mexico. This series was also selected for the price Descubrimientos PHotoEspaña 2014 and was published in the French magazine Art Press . “La Playa “ has been selected for XVII photography Biennale in Mexico.

La 7th or Carrera Séptima is the main and most historical street in Bogotá. It stretches for many kilometers alongside the city, changing drastically in sights, smells and sounds. A century ago, the Carrera Séptima, was bordered by the elegant homes of the Colombian aristocracy. It led to the city center, towards the classic municipal buildings, a colonial cathedral and the expansive Plaza de Bolívar. Its electric streetcars were a symbol of progress, high in the Andes.

Now, little remains of the Séptima’s splendor. This work focuses only on a few blocks of the downtown area where jagged scars of historic events are still in plain view for all to see. It is populated by people reminiscent of the old Bogotá or "Cachacos": living relics of the past, older gentlemen in suits and ties , the quintessencial Bogotano of the last century. Politicians, well worn businessmen, street performers, vagrants, and loners, complete this human map infusing the environment with a strange dose of surrealism. I have been photographing this stretch of town for many months, trying to build a portrait of this street, of this city, where despair and hope are not in opposition but coexist with each other. La Carrera 7, may well be the mirror of this whole nation.

Juan Cristobal Cobo (b. 1963) was born in Cali Colombia and moved to New York as he was a teenager. His earliest passions were centered on filmmaking, but after 30 years as a cinematographer and commercial director, he found himself being strongly drawn to the art of still photography. Unlike the controlled chaos of a film set, he find peace in getting lost among strangers, immersed in diverse surroundings, and ready to capture spontaneous moments with the solitary click of his shutter. Since 2013, this new passion has been his sole focus and the means of allowing him to best express his inner voice. He currently lives in New York City.

I grew up in Guatemala during the country’s decades-long civil war and endured arduous years of repressive military dictatorships. Communism was a taboo subject. In particular, Cuba and Nicaragua were seldom discussed. And when they were, it was rarely without a heavy dose of ironic or sarcastic commentary. As a young adult, I strived to fill in some of the cultural gaps and omissions left over from my teenage years. As such, I fell in love with the Cuba which can be readily consumed outside of its borders: literature, music, rum and tobacco.

Every November, La Fototeca de Cuba organizes their annual Month of Photography in Havana.  For the 2014 edition of the festival, I was invited to present my monograph YONKEROS, a collection of photographs documenting the working lives and landscape of the Willets Point junkyards in New York City.

After ten days in Cuba, I remember awaiting my flight back to New York with a sense of having defeated all the prejudice and preconceptions which were handed to me during my childhood in Guatemala.  There really is no substitute for seeing the reality on the ground for oneself. A week after arriving stateside, Presidents Obama and Castro announced their intention to normalize relations between the two nations after a half century of hostility and estrangement.  The timing of this announcement added a feeling of urgency to the images I made: as though I were suddenly reporting back about the end of an era.

Jaime Permuth is a Guatemalan photographer living and working in New York City. In 2014, he was awarded a Smithsonian Institution Artist Fellowship and was also nominated for a 2015 USA Artists Fellowship. In 2013, his first monograph Yonkeros was published by La Fabrica Editorial (Madrid). In 2012, he was nominated for the Santa Fe Prize in Photography and was also one of fifteen artists in the United States nominated for the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Contemporary Artist Award. His photographs have been shown at several venues in New York City, including The Museum of Modern Art, The Queens Museum of Art, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Museum of the City of New York, The Jewish Museum, El Museo del Barrio, and The Brooklyn Museum of Art. He has also exhibited internationally at the Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno in Guatemala, Ryugaheon Gallery (Korea) Casa del Lago in Mexico City, and the Israeli Parliament. Jaime Permuth is a Faculty Member at the School of Visual Arts where he also teaches.