I don’t remember precisely whether Wilmes was waiting for me at El Terminal or not. What I do remember is that he was a bit drunk. «Do you mind me being hammered?», he said to me with his red eyes. «I drank water, I promise I’m fine.» We approached an orange Malibu to work | … |

Free retellings of a few days in Mexico. Texts by Carlos Ávila and photographs by Agustina Triquell.
Tijuana. Artaud arrived in Mexico in the mid-thirties and said that he was on the road to the sun: «What must be pursued here is the secret of that force of light.» What did he mean? Nobody knows. As far as I’m concerned, the reflection of the sun in Tijuana, possibly that «force of light» pointed out by Artaud, gives me an intense headache.

Sabrina Montiel-Soto is a Venezuelan artist residing in Brussels. Her artistic trajectory has been multidisciplinary, venturing into different fields of creation ranging from various audiovisual media to photography, sculpture, and installation. In her work, she performs acute observations of human beings, their intimate and historical context, their daily life, and the re-signification of objects and the | … |

Virginia Ramírez (Caracas, 1988) studied Graphic Design at the School of Visual Communication and Graphic Design PRODISEÑO in Caracas, where she was also Assistant Professor in the Drawing and Sound Workshops. She holds a Master’s degree in Visual Arts from LUCA School of Arts in Brussels (2014). Among others, she participated in the ROOM ART | … |

Grace Weinrib Dagach (California, USA, 1983) holds a degree in Visual Arts with a major in painting from the Universidad Finis Terrae (UFT) (Santiago, Chile). She has participated in numerous group exhibitions, both in Chile and abroad, in spaces such as the Museo de Artes Visuales (Chile), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Chile) and Casa de las | … |

  My mother’s garden has gone through several mutations, depending on the enthusiasm, the time of year, and, of course, the death or the appearance of family members.   The beginning is like all beginnings. We had a large garden full of grass and some wild plants, those that grow arbitrarily between rocks or in | … |

  #PaisajeUlterior [#UlteriorLandscape]: A landscape after the landscape, after the landscape, after the landscape. This text is not a text, because nothing that is linear interests me anymore. This text is not a text because every explanatory practice is distrusted. «A photograph is an image of concepts.» [1] To see is to know something about the world. | … |

Rigor Mortis; a digital photograph of about 84 by 97 centimeters shows my two arms. One in normal state; the other numb, cold, purple, blue, green, cadaverous, dead. Both resting on white linen, reminiscent of a shroud, perhaps like the Shroud of Turin, that forgery in which many still believe to see the reliable miraculous | … |

José Joaquín Figueroa (Caracas, 1986) is an interdisciplinary artist currently based in Berkeley, California. He began his artistic training in Caracas, where he studied Painting at the Universidad Experimental de las Artes (2007-2010), and continued later at the Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture (2009). He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Art from the Cooper Union | … |

Sofia Borges (Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, 1984) is a visual artist with a degree in Visual Arts from the University of São Paulo, currently living between Paris and São Paulo. In 2008 she received a scholarship for research and artistic production granted by the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. She has exhibited her work in solo shows in | … |

By Daisy Patton. There is a rich dysfunctionality in the histories of painting and photography. Painting is dead. Photography is dead. The two undead rivals somehow persevere, and it is that relationship between them I find incredibly influential to my practice.

El Helicoide, May 18, 2016. Luis Theis has been imprisoned inside the beast of concrete and rebars that sits on top of Roca Tarpeya, hoping to awaken from a modernity that never came. Torture, rapes, and disappearances sleep together in a place where drugs and prostitution have been guests already. This time, the monster temporarily houses, like a terrifying hotel, the detainees from the march held in Caracas in support of the recall referendum convened by the opposing Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD), which after a strong intervention from the Bolivarian National Police (PNB) and the appearance of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN), resulted in 44 detainees nationwide (14 of them in Caracas).

Before the memory of the islands dissipates, we have decided to try and revive what we experienced, which in this case is not about talking about this or that street, such and such park, a magnificent exhibition, an absurd monument or a historical place. It’s something different. An island is always something ‘other,’ even if we are inside a museum, even if a house is a house, even if the streets are similar to continental streets. An island, as Gertrud Stein’s rose, is an island is an island is an island.

We embarked on this trip as a disrupted continuity of the previous one, thinking: not one island, two. But Capraia turned out to be the other face of the insular coin, the darker yet dazzled side of the concept of island: when it is closer to the place of imprisonment and repetition, when the map does not lead to a treasure but to the most beautiful trap.

Doubles–jeux por Sophie Calle; 1 edición; publicada por primera vez en el 2002 por Actes Sud.

Doubles–jeux by Sophie Calle; first edition; published in 2002 by Actes Sud.                        

To think about the identity of the images of Caracas seems an exercise still linked to the exaltation of the bucolic: the idealized landscape, the majestic character of the Ávila mountain, the privileged climate, the flight of birds of paradise, all make up the spinal cord of this representation. But is this really the landscape that the city becomes? Why does the urban face of Caracas drown its contemplation?

Un vistazo al fotolibro Candida Höfer Fotografien 2004 – 2005, impreso por la Editorial Schirmer/Mosel Verlagen el 2005.

Agradecimientos a Luis Molina-Pantin.

A look at Candida Höfer’s photobook Fotografien 2004 – 2005, printed by Schirmer / Mosel Verlagen Editions in 2005. Special thanks to Luis Molina-Pantin.                  

As in any first-degree equation, we must clear the variable, in this case, the artistic scene (X), which, ever capricious and brutal, behaves like an electron: it appears and disappears, visibilizing and invisibilizing the peripheral or nuclear elements that it sometimes orbits and sometimes doesn’t.

This body of work was made during several visits to my home town, New Orleans, in 2007 and 2008. In fact, this work grew out of a series of portraits I began in 2005, with the idea of helping people create a new photographic collection of family photos, which thousands lost in the flood.   | … |

Recounting a trip you returned from some time ago is no piece of cake. There is always a sort of slip of the head, as if the past had slid down the shower drain, as if “returning” was a haircut with memory at the tips. This is why sometimes keeping a journal is an advantage, or if none exists, having been more or less consistent with the uploading of photos and thoughts to cyberspace—this dematerialized place we so inhabit—could also work. There we can search for what was said and seen—to avoid repetition or to invoke it—: to live up in the clouds.

Once again, we have the pleasure of taking a virtual tour of exhibitions in Madrid by the photographic hand of our correspondent Elena Pastor; on this occasion, she takes us on a visit to the Stephen Shore exhibition at the Mapfre Foundation.     In-situ text Stephen Shore (born New York, 1947) can be counted | … |

A look at the Gabriel Orozco catalog. © Éditions du Center Pompidou, Paris 2010.              

Un vistazo al catálogo de Gabriel Orozco © Éditions du Centre Pompidou, Paris 2010.

…bajo la mirada de otro. “Ser un hombre”, sugería Primo Levi. George Didi-Huberman, Pueblos expuestos, pueblos figurantes.     Being and Time is the enigmatic title Heidegger gave to his analysis of human existence. With this title, he warned that only to be woven with time can offer us the possibility of being thrown (as we | … |

Un vistazo al libro Wolfgang Tillmans. Truth Study Center, editado y diseñado por Tillmans himself . editorial TASHEN, 2005.

A look at the book Wolfgang Tillmans, Truth Study Center, edited and designed by Tillmans himself. TASCHEN, 2005.                

Por Hayfer Brea. El paisaje ha rondado en mis ideas y experiencias por casi tres lustros; lo he pensado, sentido y expresado en múltiples imágenes, técnicas y soportes. Categoría que no deja de sorprenderme por su inagotable fuente de creatividad reflexiva y humana, de ver con determinación una idea, un concepto, un punto de vista ante la naturaleza. Esa experiencia sensible de encuadrar, enmarcar, limitar una visión, un instante en el espacio-tiempo, un fenómeno climático o una emoción que traducimos al reflejarnos en la lejanía. Una representación de aquello que nos permea, angustia o regocija; de aquello que nos identifica o arraiga en un lugar, territorio o sitio determinado. Ámbito de mitos, símbolos e historias que nos dan forma, que nos definen y diferencian de otros.

  Landscapes have haunted my ideas and experiences for almost three years. I have thought, felt and expressed them with multiple images, techniques and formats. The category of landscape never fails to surprise me: it’s an inexhaustible source of reflective and human creativity, of looking at an idea, a concept, or a point of view | … |

In memory of John Machado. Location: Chacaracual environmental conservation area. El Horcón sector, peninsula of Macanao. Island of Margarita, Venezuela.   I recall that morning, last June, for its flawless, cloudless blue sky and its atmospheric overhead light. I left home with my father, who offered to take me from Pampatar to Macanao, where we | … |

Por Melissa Núñez. El proyecto comenzó cuando vivía en Holanda. En los trenes y en los buses veía personas con la cabeza inclinada y luego observaba el teléfono en sus manos. Apenas comenzaba el uso de los teléfonos inteligentes. Fui viendo esto más y más: en restaurantes, en la calle, en las paradas de bus y estaciones de tren, parejas aburridas sentadas en cafés o grupos de adolescentes en círculo… gente junta pero cada uno mirando su smartphone buscando algo, fuese lo que fuese.

The project started when I was living in Holland. On trains and buses, I would see people with their heads down and then I noticed the phone in their hands. The use of smartphones was just beginning.   I began to see this more and more: in restaurants, on the street, at bus stops and | … |

Un vistazo al libro: Gerhard Richter. Overpainted Photographs. Publicado por Hatje Cantz. Editado en el 2008 por Markus Heinzelmann, textos de Markus Heinzelmann, Siri Hustvedt, Uwe M. Schneede y Botho Strauß.

A look at Gerhard Richter: Overpainted Photographs. Published by Hatje Cantz. Edited in 2008 by Markus Heinzelmann, texts by Markus Heinzelmann, Siri Hustvedt, Uwe M. Schneede and Botho Strauß.                  

Las aventuras de Guille y Belinda y el enigmático significado de sus sueños. Fotografías de Alessandra Sanguinetti. Editorial Idea12na. Impreso en Buenos Aires, 2006.

The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of Their Dreams («Las aventuras de Guille y Belinda y el enigmático significado de sus sueños»). Photographs by Alessandra Sanguinetti. Editorial Idea12na. Printed in Buenos Aires, 2006.            

In cocktails and inaugurations, people are talking about P2P (Contemporary Practices in Spanish Photography). Many recommend attending the exhibition, one of the highlights of PHotoEspaña 2014. “More than twenty artists are in it; will I see you at the opening?” asks Jesús, a photographer friend exhibiting at the Círculo de Bellas Artes. “Sure, see you tonight!” I reply, drink in hand, from the Botanical Garden.

10.12.11 Heading to Santiago Mariño airport on Margarita Island, I was talking to José Gregorio, a surfer, preacher and taxi driver, who was driving me. As we passed in front of the San Antonio Penitentiary, he said: «I have a friend who spent five years in that place, for drug trafficking, and being a prisoner | … |

By Rose Hartman. As usual, I had entered Studio 54, always a guest of Steve Rubell, the club’s exuberant co-owner. Hundreds of fabulously-attired guests of every persuasion had gathered behind the curtain that separated invited, notable guests drinking endless champagne from the hundreds of frenzied revelers who waited patiently (or screamed non-stop to no avail) .to enter Studio. Wearing my usual garb-black jacket, black trousers, comfortable shoes, I made my way toward those glittering creatures -Diane von Furstenberg, Elsa Peretti, Halston, Bianca, Baryshnikov, Truman Capote, Marisa Berenson -that made each night the most exciting place in the universe. Like a fly on the wall, I carried my Olympus 35mm camera with lots of black-and-white film, And waited patiently until I observed an intimate moment that I had to capture. Under the glittering disco ball, An animated Andy Warhol (who never was photographed speaking) was actually engaged in conversation with the gorgeous texan model. I probably took only one or two frames, before the moment evaporated, and guests intervened to chat with the striking duo-in 1977.

Por Rose Hartman

Un vistazo al libro The Polaroid Book. Editado por Steve Crist. Editorial Taschen.

A look at The Polaroid Book. Edited by Steve Crist. Taschen.                    

On the evening of Friday, November the 8th, 2013, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced economic measures that would «benefit» the Venezuelan people. Among these measures was an order to place price controls on all the products in the Daka appliance chain stores. People from different cities in the country decided to head to their closest | … |

Por Miguel Gutierrez. La noche del viernes 8 de noviembre del 2013, el presidente venezolano Nicolás Maduro anunció medidas económicas que “favorecerían” a los venezolanos, entre ellas, el control de precios de la cadena de tiendas de electrodomésticos “Daka”. Personas de diversas ciudades decidieron salir a estas tiendas a conseguir ofertas de los productos en venta esa misma noche. A la mañana siguiente, centenas de personas aguardaban por las ofertas en las entradas de los locales comerciales.