Exhibitions
Panoràmic celebrates ten editions exploring the limits of visual culture
The festival displays 25 exhibitions in Granollers, Barcelona, Terrassa and Vic to reflect on the two hundred years of photography, with Donna Ferrato as one of the main protagonists and a program that incorporates four Barcelona universities for the first time.
The image has become one of the great tools with which contemporary society interprets the world, constructs memory and expresses its contradictions. Behind every photograph, film or visual archive there is a way of looking, but also a way of narrating reality. On this territory of crossroads between art, document and thought is articulated a new edition of the Panoràmic festival. Arts and Visual Cultures, which this year celebrates its tenth edition coinciding with the bicentenary of the first photograph.
From October 15 to December 27, the festival presents 25 exhibitions distributed between Granollers, Barcelona, Terrassa and Vic, a city that is joining the tour for the first time. With Granollers as the nerve center, the program proposes a broad look at two centuries of image culture and the persistence of the desire to represent, document and reinterpret the world through different visual languages.
'Parade' by Pep Agut.
The festival director, Joan Fontcuberta, points out the importance of this double anniversary, which links the ten years of Panoràmic's trajectory with the two hundred years of the first photograph, a moment he defines as "kilometer zero of the civilization of the image in which we find ourselves". This perspective runs through a program that puts artists of different generations, origins and sensibilities into dialogue, and that understands photography not as an isolated medium, but as a practice in constant transformation, connected with cinema, archives, digital technologies and new forms of perception.
One of the main protagonists of this edition is the American photojournalist Donna Ferrato, who presents Holy at the Roca Umbert factory in Granollers. The exhibition brings together images that explore the complexity of the female experience, from the joy of giving life to the pain caused by violence exercised by loved ones. With a direct and committed gaze, Ferrato places the body, intimacy and power relations at the center of the story, and claims photography as a tool to make visible realities that often remain hidden.
The diversity of proposals is organized into different curatorial lines. Panoràmic Archives addresses the relationship between photography, memory and identity based on documentary materials that allow collective stories to be reviewed. Panoràmic Review recovers significant figures, practices and movements of audiovisual culture to reconsider their validity from the present. Open Panoràmic, in turn, gives visibility to the projects selected through the festival's open call and consolidates itself as a platform for new research and ways of understanding images.
'Holy' by Donna Ferrato.
Among the artists and projects present are Kensuke Koike, with A Familiar Stranger , and Erik Kessels and PetriPaselli, with The Stand-in Groom , two proposals that are part of the exploration of the possibilities of transformation and reinterpretation of images. Oscar Moya Villanueva presents 927 days. 456 people. 88 films , while Leah Gordon addresses memory and representations of the rural world with Monument to the Vanquished Peasant . Jordan Putt, with Field Book , and Anna Rierola, with The Garden of Delights , expand a journey in which photography dialogues with other forms of visual construction.
The program also includes Cuerpos de agua , by Marina Planas; Arder de deseo , within Open Panoràmic, and Humanizer – Artificial Cognition , by DA Restrepo and Jorge Bandera, a proposal that connects with the questions raised by artificial intelligence and new forms of cognition. Domènec presents Refugio , while Lucía Morón participates with Te amo. Yo tampoco . These proposals are joined by Sacar el archivo de fiesta and TANT PER DALT COM PER BAIX , by Oscar Holloway, which contribute to broadening the field of reflection on the social, artistic and cultural uses of images.
The program continues with An Elephant in the Garden , by Sylvie Bussières; Spin , by Playmodes, and The Art of Decomposition , by Eric Rondepierre. Also included are Cada día, en todas partes, todas ellas , dedicated to the universe of Miroslav Tichý; Parade , by Pep Agut, and em sap greu, by Mireia Comas. The tour is completed by Una Storia Italiana , by Eva Rivas Bao; Lux Domus , by Josep Poblet; Del natural; En defensa del fervor, and Impressions d'ultramar , by Nathalie Rey. The set forms a mosaic of practices that allows for a transition between contemporary creation, historical revision, documentary research and experimentation with visual languages.
'Spin' by Playmodes.
Beyond the exhibitions, Panoràmic reinforces its educational dimension with pedagogical activities, screenings and seminars. One of the novelties of this edition is the incorporation of four universities in Barcelona, which expand the dialogue between the festival, the academic community and new audiences. The aim is to make visual culture a space of shared knowledge, beyond strictly professional circuits.
"We think it's a very complete program that can interest all audiences, both professionals in the sector and families, as well as people on the street, because image is not only the competence of those who work in it professionally, but it is a universe in which we have to live today and, therefore, it is important to know it in order to survive," says Fontcuberta.
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