José María Mellado exhibits in “Natural Engineering – Architecture and Landscape in Photography”, an exhibition of the Bragales Collection in Santander
A new exhibition with the funds of the Bragales Collection has been published in the “Espacio Comillas” in Cantabria, in the former Major Seminary of Comillas. Under the title “Natural Engineering- Architecture and Landscape in the photography of the Bragales Collection”, the exhibition proposes as a theme and curatorial line, to reflect and understand architecture as an ecosystem in constant transformation. Its curator Laura Olea López states that “to better understand how this arrangement takes place, this exhibition shows, through the photographs of the Bragales Collection, architectural spaces as open processes in constant transformation, opening the visitor’s gaze to the process of construction, reconstruction and meaning of architecture when it is inhabited, in relation to its present, but also to its history.”
Hence, the exhibition introduces a journey that spans from the 70s to the present, based on the work of renowned national and international artists, among which the names of approximately 30 authors stand out, such as: José María Mellado, Antoni Muntadas, Candida Höfer, Perejaume, John Baldessari, Paul Graham, Frank Thiel, Gabriel Basilico, among others. Conceived through four thematic sections: Metabolism, Foundations, Contemplative Structure and Vent, which are distributed according to the layout of the Comillas Space, the artists’ pieces dialogue from a common point, that of “exploring architectural spaces as living processes in constant evolution”. The exhibition, in the words of its own curator, “develops as a walk without a marked path and invites us to rethink the architecture we find from a new experience”.
As a whole, The exhibition features around 30 photographs of various formats, all from the prestigious private collection of the engineer Jaime Sordo, known as “Los Bragales”, and today one of the most important collections of contemporary art in Spain and abroad. Through the photographs exhibited in the Comillas Space, “impressive images that speak from the design, construction and interaction of architecture with its environment” are revealed.
“Eight Cooling Towers” (2006) is the photograph by José María Mellado that you can discover right at the beginning of the tour of this collective exhibition, as it welcomes visitors in dialogue with a piece by the artist Antoni Muntadas. Mellado’s piece connects with the exhibition line that proposes, in this case, to establish a close relationship between art and architecture, to reinterpret the landscape from the human key and to provide a new reading. At the box office, the works of Muntadas and Mellado open the exhibition, clearly showing how industrial structures relate to human life as we know it. The contrast between the industrial and the human highlights in a striking way the essential link between infrastructure, nature, and our human existence: in any context and under any circumstance, we need to take ownership of the environment.
“Los Bragales” as an art collection was born in 1975 from the acquisition of works from the School of Paris, Madrid and Informalism. Years later, in 1990 it was complemented with paintings from the 60s and 70s and in 1995 the purchase of paintings from the 80s began, the “prodigious decade”. Photography was introduced into the collection in the 90s, with works by national and international artists, and in the 2000s works from the 1990s and 2000s were incorporated, beginning the incorporation of video into the collection and a recycling of formats and qualities as a whole. Currently the collection has more than 400 works of art that symbolize the continuous and dedicated work of its founder Jaime Sordo, as well as all the exhibitions, which together with the one you can currently enjoy, propose to approach and rediscover the works and their authors
The exhibition “Natural Engineering: Architecture and Landscape in Photography from the Bragales Collection” is of great importance for several reasons. First, it brings together an exquisite selection of works that explore the relationship between the natural environment and human interventions, highlighting coexistence and mutual transformation. In addition, it features renowned photographers whose works offer unique and deep perspectives on the subject, inviting us to rethink our relationship with the spaces we inhabit and to distinguish their beauty. The Bragales collection, recognized for its value and relevance, provides a significant context, consolidating the exhibition as an essential cultural event to understand the interaction between nature and architecture in photographic art.
The exhibition will be open until September 30, 2024.
You can’t miss this great exhibition!
DATES:
From June 7 to September 30, 2024
Comillas Space. Exhibition hall.
Avda. de la Universidad Pontificia, s/n, 39520 Comillas, Cantabria
TIMETABLE:
Monday to Friday : 08h00 – 17h30
Saturday and Sunday: 08h00 – 12h00
MEDIA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEnQbcfHXjU&
