Joan Fontcuberta
CATALONIA
Joan Fontcuberta born in 1955 in Barcelona, is an artist, essayist, educator, and exhibition curator. His work has been exhibited at the MoMA in New York (1988), the Art Institute of Chicago (1990), the IVAM in Valencia, Spain (1992), the MNAC in Barcelona (1999), the Artium in Vitoria (2003), the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris (2014), and the Science Museum in London (2014), among others. In 2013, Joan Fontcuberta was awarded the International Prize from the Hasselblad Foundation. In 2020, he was conferred an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Paris VIII.
In his photography-oriented practice, Joan Fontcuberta challenges the authority of his medium to examine the subjectivity of truth and perception. His work questions the dogma of media, technology, religion, medicine, government, academia, the art world and science.
Artistic residency program of the InCadaqués Festival,
with the support of the Ministry of Culture.
In collaboration with Foundation Gala-Salvador Dalí
• SERIES •
DALILAROIDS
Residency InCadaqués Festival
At the beginning of 2024, collector and expert on Dalí’s work, Pere Vehí, acquired a collection of SX-70 format Polaroids from neighbors in Cadaqués who had frequented the Dalís. The specific authorship of these photographs cannot be determined with certainty; some were presumably taken by the artist himself or Gala, while others may have been shot by people in their circle. The themes are varied: portraits of visitors to the house in Port-Lligat, excursions to Cap de Creus, and close-ups of rocks and various household objects, possibly photographed as studies. Occasionally, some small images have been altered by ink or gouache.
Shortly after Polaroid launched the instant photography system, its creator, Edwin Land, sought to enhance this brilliant new technology with the image of other geniuses of the time. Thus, numerous figures from popular culture and art, such as Andy Warhol, David Hockney, and Salvador Dalí, lent their faces to the company’s advertising campaigns. Their participation reflected the connection between Polaroid's innovative technology and avant-garde art. Following this initial collaboration with Dalí in 1972 for promotional purposes, Land continued to gift the painter the latest Polaroid camera models as they were released. For Dalí, these were a sort of toy with which he could indulge in playful yet creative experiences.
Invited by the InCadaqués Festival, Laia Abril and Joan Fontcuberta have drawn inspiration from the discovery of these photographs to embark on their own artistic projects. These projects not only engage in dialogue with each other but also with the Dalinian atmosphere created by the Polaroids. Abril has focused on Gala’s personal objects, delving into the mystery and poetry of her intimate universe. Fontcuberta, for his part, is interested in the rugged landscapes of the region, which have become settings for surrealist performances and shelters for various objet-trouvé.
Thus, two leading figures from their respective generations offer us two proposals brimming with imagination and visual intelligence, where Dalí's inexhaustible legacy is reinterpreted through parody and viewed in the light of contemporary concepts and poetics.