- Spectros showcases the work of seven contemporary photographers: Adriana Calatayud, Alinka Echeverría, Cannon Bernáldez, Humberto Ríos, Laura Cohen, Paola Dávila and Tomás Casademunt.
- The exhibition is open to the public free of charge from 12 June to 13 September.
- The exhibition is accompanied by a programme for the whole family, including workshops on photographic techniques and guided tours.
The Casa de México Foundation in Spain, as the official venue for PhotoEspaña, presents the exhibition Spectres. Enigmas of the Gaze, a group exhibition by seven contemporary photographers.
The exhibition’s title refers to photography as a spectre, that is, as supplementary images of an existing material reality that once stood before the camera. To view a photograph is to see that which was and is no longer.
Curated by Laura Gonzalez-Flores, it presents the work of seven photographers: Adriana Calatayud, Alinka Echeverría, Cannon Bernáldez, Humberto Ríos, Laura Cohen, Paola Dávila and Tomás Casademunt, who explore the medium’s parallel capacity to imagine what has been seen. Beyond the ability to describe and catalogue reality, the works on display demonstrate that photography can also be used to destabilise what has been seen.
The exhibition presents ninety-six works in various formats and sizes, ranging from digital photography, cyanotype, pinhole photography, and gelatin silver prints to platinum and piezography.
The public can enjoy the exhibition free of charge from 12 June to 13 September. Additionally, upon prior registration, visitors can take guided tours on the following days and dates:
- Thursday at 7.00 pm. 25 June | 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 July.
- Saturdays at 12:00. 4, 11, 18, 25 July | 12 September
Alongside this, a programme of activities related to the various photographic techniques featured in the exhibition is being presented: a collage workshop, a cyanotype workshop, a photographic intervention workshop and a photography walk led by Paola Dávila. As places on these workshops are limited, those interested can book their place via the website www.casademexico.es.
Spectres. Enigmas of the Gaze goes beyond simply bringing together photographic series of spectres in a formal sense; it seeks to interrogate the structurally spectral nature of photography. The works exist on the threshold of the visible: their figures hover on the edge of legibility, neither wholly present nor wholly absent.
The exhibition begins with Cannon Bernáldez’s series Miedos (2005–2009), comprising small-format photographs (10 cm) that depict simple, everyday motifs which, when placed in the right context, become triggers for anxiety or terror. The narrative of his photographs is constructed to suggest the terrible as inevitable, leading the viewer into terror.
It continues with Alinka Echeverría, who transforms a biometric tool of identification and social control into an imaginary topography. Belonging to nine men who fought against apartheid in South Africa and who were imprisoned alongside Nelson Mandela, Echeverría undertook extensive research for her series Mtheory (2015) until she tracked them down and was able to obtain their fingerprints. The second series is Apparent Femininity. Grace (2019). An animation based on a photograph by Berenice Abbott featuring Grace Hopper, a pioneer in the field of computer science.
The series Espectrografías (2009–2023) by Tomás Casademunt, created using large-format pinhole cameras. Casademunt produces work that spans a long period of time, resulting in abstract photography. His photographs take months to see the light of day; he captures buildings under construction over an extended period, using large metal boxes to create his own pinhole cameras.
Paola Dávila uses cyanotype, a 19th-century technique, for her two series: Todos los días son lunes (2020–2021) and Mareas (2024). In the first series, she uses software to convert routes through a specific location into graphs, transforming them into a negative used to produce a cyanotype. Mareas is an intensely blue, camera-less series shot in Baja California; her works are the result of an encounter between various organic and inorganic elements and sunlight on the seashore.
Adriana Calatayud takes hard data on the organ trafficking trade in Mexico and translates it into photographic journeys through desolate landscapes, marked by potential crime scenes, where the body is always absent. The series Cementerios silenciosos (2016–2019) functions as a visual mapping of zones of disappearance, where the territory becomes an opaque archive.
Laura Cohen rewrites the logic of 18th-century vanitas by working with still life. Her compositions are constructed as meticulously arranged scenes in the studio, where the organic coexists with the artificial on the same plane. The darkness of the backgrounds, the controlled lighting and the meticulous isolation of each element create the sensation that these forms are frozen in time, which is neither before nor after, but an extended present.
Humberto Ríos presents two series, Vestigios (2010) and Suspending time (2016), both of which refer to photographic time: on the one hand, to the suspension of time inherent to the medium, and on the other, to the effect of time on the practices and spaces in which photography is produced.
Laura González – Flores
Holder of a PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona, she has been involved in teaching, curating, art criticism and the theory of the technical image since 1992. She is currently a senior researcher at the Institute for Aesthetic Research (IIE) at UNAM.
Her recent curatorial projects include, in 2023, the exhibitions Héctor García: Ciudad vorágine, Ciudad espectro and Ciudadanos (Centro de la Imagen, Museo de la Ciudad and Rejas de Chapultepec). In 2024, she curated the exhibition Materiae by Javier Marín (Palazzo Esposizioni / Terme di Diocleciano, Rome). She has written on the relationship between drawing and sculpture.
Her books as an author include Fotografía y pintura ¿dos medios diferentes? (Gustavo Gili, 2004–2011) and La fotografía ha muerto. ¡Viva la fotografía! (Herder, 2018).
PHotoESPAÑA is an international photography and visual arts festival held annually in Madrid since 1998. Founded by Alberto Anaut, it has established itself as one of Spain’s most important cultural events and a global benchmark in the field of the visual arts. Each edition, which runs throughout the spring and summer months, brings together leading national and international photographers and visual artists, showcasing their work in museums, cultural centres, galleries and public spaces across various Spanish cities.
The festival combines an Official Section, with exhibitions at prestigious institutions, and an Off Festival, which involves galleries and independent venues. PhotoEspaña not only showcases the latest trends in photography but also promotes dialogue between creators, professionals and the general public. With over 1,800 exhibitions and 4,000 artists throughout its history, it has attracted millions of visitors and has become a key platform for artistic reflection, the visibility of new talent and the connection between cultures through the image.
Exhibition programme: Spectres. Enigmas of the Gaze
- Special tour and photographic walk with Paola Dávila | 20 June | 10:00 | €10 per person.
- Book launch: La orilla es horizonte by Paola Dávila | 23 June | 19:00.
- Workshop on photographic intervention | 30 June to 9 July | 6.00 pm | €80 for 4 sessions.
- Workshop on cyanotype. Developing with the sun | 29 June to 8 July | 5.00 pm | €80 for 4 sessions.
- Workshop on collage and visual exploration | 23–25 June | 6.00 pm | €60 for 3 sessions.
About the CASA DE MÉXICO EN ESPAÑA FOUNDATION (FCME)
The Casa de México en España Foundation (FCME) is a non-profit organisation with a contemporary vision of the country, which seeks to strengthen ties, promote and open up new opportunities through culture, business and social development between Mexico and Spain. The organisation is funded by Mr Valentín Diez Morodo, its president and founder. To find out more about the calendar of events and the services offered by the CME, please visit the website http://www.casademexico.es and follow us on social media: Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Source: FUNDACIÓN CASA DE MÉXICO EN ESPAÑA