Fotos Contam Fatos

The exhibition Fotos contam Fatos [Photos Tell Facts], curated by Denise Gadelha, features a polyphonic set of works marked by the presence of photography as a narrative tool. The show proposes an interlocution based on the research considered at the XIII Premio Marc Ferrez de Fotografia (Funarte), which established contact with different facets of networks of artistic production and circulation in ten cities, from Brazil’s North to South.
The plural character of this investigation reflects the tendency of cross-influence among languages; not only in the viewpoint of the hybridism of postmodern aesthetics, but also in tune with the symbiosis between text and image, increasingly fueled by interactive complexity of communication in contemporary society. The transmission of an event is facilitated by overlapping different media to describe complementary facets in order to attribute meaning. Especially with regard to current narratives, texts are invaded by images
and these are re-signified in writing.
Fotos contam Fatos shows approaches that are unconventional compared to the traditional photography that portrays pure images. This research seeks an alternative path, articulating photographic propositions that transit between various artistic categories. The dialogue is broadened in a context that gives primacy to the reading of the image as a vehicle of narration presented in various media such as installations, sculptures, objects, videos or books. Here we find a sort of vision that goes beyond the singularity of an isolated photograph, connecting it in a complex way to neighboring elements.
The artworks selected for the show represent a diverse spectrum of postures that complement the meaning of the image and transcend its individuality, such as
strategies of arrangements in narrative sequences and photographs treated as semantic units in “visual phrases” that form larger sets. Proposals that burst the limits of the bidimensional plane, granting the body of the image a presence in space. Photographs dismembered in their minimal parts, then reconstructed through a reorganization of their base code, resulting in a totally different appearance. In some of the works, the photos document fictions. Others are latent images in objects that prevent them from being visible… Most, however, are visual essays organized in publications. These attitudes in relation to photography are examples of the kind of procedure that constitutes the microcosm of the exhibition, which yearns to spread the cacophonous spirit of our time.
In tune with the generalized sensation of information overload that challenges our selective capacity in our daily lives, the exhibition design adopted in this show evokes the compulsive and aggregating nature of a library, breaking away from the formal asepsis of the “white cube.” The works are displayed on conventional metal stands, like those often found in libraries. The gallery is totally saturated. The great excess of stimuli prevents the observer from grasping it as a whole. The show alludes to the infinity that potentially resides in
any grouping, where elements placed into sequence suggest virtually countless permutations. This polysemic set is open to interaction, since a good part of the
publications are available for on-site consultation. A large table with chairs positioned at the center of the room offers greater reading comfort. It is not possible to foresee, however, how the material will be returned to the shelves. Therefore, the free interchange increases the possibilities of the unfolding of the reading, by establishing new dialogues in situations that are different from the initial configuration. The technical image is a kind of language able to bring together a large volume of visual information. Contrary to linear writing – in which the time is given by the succession of words – photography suspends a
fraction of a continuum, and therefore becomes more susceptible to projections of external connections set by the specific circumstances of its reception.
In Fotos contam Fatos, photography is seen as a starting point rather than an end in itself. The construction of meaning is given by the encounter; it is assigned by the dynamics between things. More than an instrument that records the past, photography contributes to the consolidation of a version of another temporal reality echoing in the very present.