Art curator Elvira Diangany Ose, new portrait for "Barcelona retrats de proximitat"

I really wanted to photograph Elvira Dyangani Ose, the first woman to take over the direction of MACBA since it opened almost thirty years ago.
We shot the portraits in the storeroom where part of the museum's impressive collection, an exhaustive sample of the world's contemporary art, is kept.
Elvira, kind and extremely charming, has just arrived from Mexico and has had little sleep, but she still manages to make the session pleasant and fun until the end.

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Elvira Dyangani Ose is Director of the Museu d'Art Contemporàni de Barcelona (MACBA).
Born in Cordoba, with origins in Equatorial Guinea, she holds a degree in Art History from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She holds a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Architecture, History and Theory of Architecture from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, and a Master of Arts degree from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (currently completing her doctorate).
2004 to 2006, Curator of Contemporary African Art and Culture, Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno (CAAM), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.
2006 to 2008, Curator of Contemporary Art and Publications Editor (Spanish), Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC), Seville.
2011 to 2013, Artistic Director, Rencontres Picha. Biennale de Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo.
2011 to 2014, Curator International Art, Supported by Guaranty Trust Bank Plc., Tate Modern, London.
2015, Curator of the 8th edition of Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, GIBCA, Gothenburg.
2017 to 2018, Creative Time Senior Curator, New York.
2021, Director and Head Curator, The Showroom, London.
Lecturer in Visual Cultures. Goldsmiths, University of London.
Member of the Thought Council, Fondazione Prada.

Esmeralda Berbel, writer, for "Barcelona retrats de proximitat".

I confess to Esmeralda that I have not read any of her books. To get to know her a bit more before the session, I have only been able to read and listen to interviews posted on the internet. I ask her which of her books she recommends: Lo prohibido, which I have already started, and Detrás y delante de los puentes.

I ask her, out of simple curiosity, about what she teaches in her writing courses and she answers that she teaches how to read well, to understand the narrations, and then to structure them. And the style?, I ask. Everyone has their own style, I don't get involved here. In any case, I help to develop it.

There is a nice light in her studio. Before leaving, with that special smile of hers -she also smiles with her eyes- she gives me a copy of Lo prohibido and dedicates it to me: "...on this beautiful autumn day, where your gaze and mine overlap in the light and in the words".

> Esmeralda Berbel (Badalona, 1961) studies Hispanic Philology at the University of Barcelona. Her literary work has been awarded several prizes, among them Femenino-Lumen, Montserrat Roig, Ana María Matute, Cuentos del Sur in Buenos Aires, etc. She has published books of short stories: El hombre que pagaba noches enteras, Alismas; of interviews: Trátame bien, A veces la vida, Lo que piensan l@s adolescentes, the epistolary No se lo cuentes a nadie, of poetry Habitarlo todo, Fumar en la bañera; she has been editor of several books of diaries, of the novels Detrás y delante de los puentes, Lo prohibido and of a personal diary Irse. She has written and co-directed the short film El secreto.

She has collaborated in Va de cine, Radio 5 reviewing several filmmakers.

In November she exhibits at the FX Animation film school, the collective work of several artists inspired by the novel Lo prohibido.

She teaches Literary Creation at the Ateneo Barcelonés Writing School, at La buena vida bookstore in Madrid, at Jessica Walker's theater school Laboratorio and at Laura Jou's theater studio. She teaches writing, reading and poetry courses at the FX Animation film school.

Photographer Blanca Munt for "Barcelona, retrats de proximitat"

There is a generation of young photographers that catches my attention because of their tendency to desaturate color photographs, but also because of the originality of their proposals. Blanca Munt's work is part of this group, with remarkable projects such as In Between, Rastres d'un camí, or the award-winning Alerta Mira-Sol, an interesting look at security, neighborhood relations and paranoia.

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Blanca Munt graduated in Photography and Digital Media at the Escola Superior d'Imatge i Disseny (IDEP) in Barcelona in 2020. She believes that the best way to convey her ability to create and tell stories is through the fusion of photography, video and design.
She is interested in subjects such as housing, architecture, periphery, landscape, portraiture and society. She researches on the culture of fear and paranoia, which has led her to realize the project Alerta Mira-Sol (2020), published as a photobook by Dalpine publishing house, after winning the Fiebre Photobook Dummy Award (2020) and exhibited at KBr Llama at Fundación Mapfre (2021), Getxo Photo (2021) and at Sala Canal Isabel II during the Fiebre Photobook Fest (2021). Her project Sòl i Sostre (2021) was exhibited at the 7th photography festival Mirades in Baix Empordà.
She has worked as an assistant with the photographer Tanit Plana, participating in the Púber project of the latter, exhibited at La Virreina (2020). She has also worked as a curator with photographer Borja Ballbé for the digital platform Panorama, publishing artistic projects that address issues related to landscape and territory.
She currently runs La Juani, a creative direction and production studio where she works on commercial projects and some author proposals.

Blanca Munt web site

Txema Salvans, new portrait for "BARCELONA, retrats de proximitat"

A few minutes after entering Txema's house I could already see that we speak the same language, and that it was going to be a profitable session. Txema has very clear ideas and explains them with enthusiasm, whether in conversation or, above all, with his photographs. He masterfully documents the dystopia in which we are already immersed, with a touch of humor, but also of mischief. His work is, without a doubt, a valuable document of the times we are living in.

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Txema Salvans (Barcelona, 1971) is a Catalan photographer who, for the past two decades, has developed a documentary and artistic approach outside the standard photojournalist platforms, including photoessay.
Joan Fontcuberta has described his work as a “balancing critical thinking with a poetic sense of humor”. His book project Nice To Meet You (2005) received the 2015 Photo España award for the best photobook. The Waiting Game (2014) explores the necessity of desire and prostitution along the Mediterranean coastline of Spain and was awarded as the best Iberoamerican photobook.
My Kingdom was published by MACK in 2018. Perfect Day is the latest project published by MACK.
Txema Salvans' work has been published by leading international media including Le Monde, Suddeustsche Zeitung Magazine, Stern, New York Times, Welt der Frau, NZZ, Liberation, Monocle, Colors, Big Mag, Vice, Marie Claire, GQ France, Elephen, Britsh Journal of Photography, Wallpaper, I-D Magazine, Matador and El País Semanal.
He has recently exhibited his work at Centre D'Art Contemporani Arts Santa Mònica, Museum of Contemporary Art Hamburg, Museum fur photographie Braunschweig and Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Reina Sofía.

Txema Salvans website

Alba Armengou, new portrait for "Barcelona, retrats de proximitat".

Alba is like a member of the family. She is a good friend of my son's and at home we have been fans of hers for years. She explains to me, enthusiastic, the new stage she is living: she leaves the Sant Andreu Jazz Band and starts a new project with the guitarist Vicente López, with an album included.
Alba speaks with the same delicacy with which she sings jazz standards or bossa nova and with the softness of her splendid trumpet solos. I ask her how she feels more comfortable, whether singing or playing the trumpet and she answers that, although they are different things, both allow her to express herself musically. Maybe singing -she tells me- I reach more people. The trumpet is more exclusive...

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"I was born on July 7, 2001. At the age of three I started studying music theory at the Conservatori del Liceu, and later, at the age of six, I began studying trumpet. In 2009 I entered the Institut Escola Artístic Oriol Martorell and joined the Sant Andreu Jazz Band, directed by Joan Chamorro, where shortly after I started singing. From the age of fourteen to sixteen I was part of the JONC (National Youth Orchestra of Catalonia). In 2018 I presented my first album as a co-leader with Joan Chamorro. A year later I began higher studies in jazz trumpet at ESMUC (Catalonia High School of Music).
In 2020, after the COVID confinement, I started a musical project with the guitarist Vicente López, which will result in what will be my first album under my name with my own compositions.
In recent years I have also been part of projects such as the Valparaiso Clasijazz Big band directed by Miho Hazama, the Barcelona Art Orquestra directed by Lluís Vidal and the Orquestra de Músiques d'Arrel de Catalunya directed by Dani López. Also throughout my career I have participated in more than 40 recordings where I have been able to collaborate with musicians such as Joel Fram, Jessie Davis, Scott Robinson, Joe Magnarelli, Perico Sambeat, Scott Hamilton, Dick Oatts, among many others.."

New site for the "BARCELONA retrats de proximitat" projecT

With the 80 portraits project almost finished, and starting to work on the book layout, I created a website to preview the work.

You can check it here.

Portrait session with our Canadian nephews and nieces

It's already becoming a tradition: when we have visitors at home, we end up doing a long and fun portrait session.

New portrait: musician and visual artist Josep-Maria Balanyà, for "Barcelona, retrats de proximitat".

The music of Josep-Maria Balanyà should be listened to with predisposition and attention, because it is complex and stirs up hidden registers. It is a music that is difficult, but at the same time honest. I ask him if he follows a specific pattern when he improvises. He sits down at the piano and shows me an example, playing a base of intervals of fifths and ninths, on which he creates and undoes tensions and rhythms, with the confidence of someone who perfectly masters a strange language and knows how to use it to communicate and express himself.
Balanyà is kind, attentive and very expressive. I photograph him in his bright studio in the neighborhood of Raval, a few days before he returns to Brussels, the city he shares with Barcelona as his place of residence.
Observing how he moves and how he speaks, one can understand the statement that "his concerts are energetic rituals - one could say that he plays the piano with his whole body - where one can perceive the presence of music made matter."

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Josep-Maria Balanyà is a pianist, composer, improvisational orchestra conductor, sound artist, painter and photographer. With more than 40 years of work on stage, 25 recorded albums and more than 140 works, his career ranges from classical music and jazz to improvisation, experimental acoustic art and performance, fields in which he enjoys high international recognition. Balanyà explores the limits of music in his compositions and performances. He is particularly interested in the combination of different arts and the transfer of art to music.
He studied painting and printmaking at the European Academy of Fine Arts in Trier, Germany. His pictorial production focuses on abstract paintings with mixed techniques, and acrylic on canvas.
His photographic work has followed a process that goes from pictorialism, to direct photography, street photography, macro technique, the study of the human body and movement.
Regarding his main field, music, Balanyà has studied in Barcelona and Switzerland (Swiss Jazz School and Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Bern), has attended composition seminars with Helmut Lachenmann, Ivan Fedele and Walter Zimmermann, and improvisation workshops with Borah Bergman in New York. He has done intensive research on nature sounds in Mexico, working with oceanographers and biologists, including mastozoologist Bernardo Villa.
Most of his works have a significant improvisational part. His works as a solo pianist combine the pure sound of the instrument with prepared or manipulated piano techniques. He has presented several multimedia projects for piano, voice, real-time electronics, video, Butoh dance, as well as pieces for percussion on sculptures, sound objects and fine arts utensils. He has worked with leading musicians, including Joachim Kühn, Hans Koch, Claudio Pontiggia, Carlos Zingaro, Michiel Borstlap, Walter Quintus, Ksenija Lukic, Hannah Marshall, Das Neue Ensemble Hannover, Americo Rodrigues, Paul Rogers, Mark Sanders, Ramón López, Hannah Mi (dance), Ulrich Mitzlaff, Mimi Barthélemy, among others.

Balanyà’s web site.

Albert Martin, new portrait for the project "Barcelona, retrats de proximitat"

Albert has been my cello teacher for several years now and I thank him for his useful lessons and his great patience towards me. Both in his classes and when he conducts us in the chamber ensemble, he knows how to transmit his criteria with effective conviction and always with a touch of almost British humor, probably inherited from his student days in Cardiff and London.

Albert Martin began his musical studies at the Escolania de la Catedral de Barcelona. Subsequently, he studied cello at the Luthier School and later at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff and Trinity College of Music in London.
He is currently a member of the Sant Cugat Symphony Orchestra and the Manfred Quartet of Barcelona.
Since 2014 he has been conducting the OCA, a string orchestra formed by amateur musicians.

New portrait for "Barcelona, retrats de proximitat": multimedia artist Mariona Omedes.

MARIONA OMEDES, multimedia artist.

Mariona welcomes me in the Marina neighborhood, at the digital art studio nueve ojos, of which she is co-founder, where they make memorable productions from spectacular mappings on city façades, audiovisuals for exhibitions, animations for films to the scenography of the Goya Awards gala. A sign on the wall sums up the atmosphere at nueve ojos: Creativity is my weapon.
She explains that she wanted to be a painter and went to London to study art. And how an encounter with the much-missed Pepo Sol, showing her a digital animation, made her change her mind and marked her professional future. Since then -she tells me- she has worked a lot, maybe even too much. But she has also enjoyed it a lot, because she is passionate about what she does.

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Mariona Omedes is a multimedia artist, trained as a painter, graphic designer and illustrator. Her artistic qualities let her participate in audiovisual projects of a distinctive cultural nature, and her knowledge and concerns, in developing audiovisual communication.
She specializes in postproduction and applies it in the direction of documentaries, event direction, audiovisuals for museums, large screenings, film postproduction, credits and all kinds of disciplines that require audiovisuals. She developed her knowledge working for ten years (1989-1999) at the digital postproduction company Oframe, which she ended up directing.
In 2011 she received the National Culture Award of Catalonia granted by CoNCA, in the audiovisual category.
She currently directs nueve ojos, a visual creativity studio that was born in May 2008 in Barcelona.

nueve ojos site