INTERRUPTIONS

Between the lines

The aesthetic fact is also political, whether from its more philosophical side or from its more practical application in society. Every cultural manifestation is thus an expression of its time, and is therefore an idea or documentation of a political nature. Probably the most political expressive form of all is photography, because its creation has a strong social impact, and its materialisation is inserted into the collective imaginary. However, photography does not always have to be linked to documentary projects or graphic reportage to be politically framed. And it is at this level that “Interruptions” is installed, a solo project by Mariano Zuzunaga that commemorates the 50th anniversary of his first exhibition, held in 1972 and inspired by the work of the renowned artist Alexander Calder (USA, 1898-1976).

“Interruptions” poses a very personal reflection on the photographic act, analysing classic concepts such as space and time, and rethinking the role of the photographer towards a more philosophical dimension of the aesthetics of the image. Zuzunaga travels through anonymous places and transfers them to the photographic image, but not before endowing them with a certain aura that only the eye of the photographer is capable of achieving. They are places that begin to take on forms, figurative or abstract, and cease to be what they are to become images charged with symbolism.

With a representation that approaches still life, Zuzunaga’s images are a faithful but subtle document of a time, of a manifesto, of a utopia. They were conceived with simplicity, dignity and austerity of resources, but impregnated with a conceptual imprint that crosses the limits of art. Stopped in time and with nobility, the photographs of “Interruptions” carry with them 5 decades of photographic life, revealing a gaze that interprets human, everyday and real stories. And if political chimeras are captured in history books, art is responsible for revealing them on another horizon. Each scene photographed by Zuzunaga; be it a shadow on the runway, a beetle on the page of a book, or a dog walking along a beach in northern Peru; will prevail through time, and between the lines, with the sharpness that characterises him, will tell us something else, something that everyone will have to decipher.

Carlos Caamaño