Fervor da Metrópole by José Manuel Ballester
08/10/2017.
Texts by Juan Manuel Bonet [Sao Paulo] Brazil
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
Fervor da Metropolis, a trip to the contemporary metropolis by José Manuel Ballester and Juan Manuel Bonet. We are facing a book with a double appeal which allows us to rediscover Sao Paulo with the images of José Manuel Ballesteros and the text of Juan Manuel Bonet, being much more than a mere exposition of both narrations.
Fervor da Metrópole. Photograph © José Manuel Ballester.
Fervor da Metrópole. Photograph © José Manuel Ballester.
Fervor da Metrópole. Photograph © José Manuel Ballester.
Fervor da Metrópole. Photograph © José Manuel Ballester.
Fervor da Metrópole. Photograph © José Manuel Ballester.
Fervor da Metrópole. Photograph © José Manuel Ballester.
Fervor da Metrópole. Photograph © José Manuel Ballester.
Fervor da Metrópole. Photograph © José Manuel Ballester.
Fervor da Metrópole. Photograph © José Manuel Ballester.
Fervor da Metrópole. Photograph © José Manuel Ballester.
Ballester and Bonet made a joint trip to this great metropolis of the south, in 2007, a trip in which they established a speech of complicity, intellectual exchange, generous debate of points of view and looks when choosing shots. The book reflects the journey of two flâneur adrift through the streets of Sao Paulo, in search of their particular Nadja.
The text of Bonet is preceded by a brief text by Simonetta Persichetti, who is quickly accompanied by essential guests in her vision of the city as Walter Benjamin. I would add as well his contemporary Erich Mendelshon, of whom I always remember his impressive dialectical images on his trips to the American city, although it is true that in this second the present is moved to the future in a city with few past references, especially because of the youth of the city. In the case of Sao Paulo a century of Modernity allows us to look back. In any case, and as Bonet advances at the beginning of his text, Ballester's work is what in the 1920s called a city photo or urban symphony.
As it happened to Mendelshon, this book is the result of several trips, Bonet and Ballester, in which there is a rapprochement and finally a crush on the city of the south, a silent love, in which the city is represented quiet.
The text of Bonet is preceded by a brief text by Simonetta Persichetti, who is quickly accompanied by essential guests in her vision of the city as Walter Benjamin. I would add as well his contemporary Erich Mendelshon, of whom I always remember his impressive dialectical images on his trips to the American city, although it is true that in this second the present is moved to the future in a city with few past references, especially because of the youth of the city. In the case of Sao Paulo a century of Modernity allows us to look back. In any case, and as Bonet advances at the beginning of his text, Ballester's work is what in the 1920s called a city photo or urban symphony.
As it happened to Mendelshon, this book is the result of several trips, Bonet and Ballester, in which there is a rapprochement and finally a crush on the city of the south, a silent love, in which the city is represented quiet.
"The fervor is in its buildings, in its passages, in its geometric forms: a visual narrative not of Sao Paulo, but of the city Ballester understands to be Sao Paulo," says Simonetta Persichetti.
The text of Bonet narrates the construction of the trip he had to see the exhibition of José Manuel Ballester, which ended up being considered not as a retrospective of the previous work but as a fresher and recent vision to include the vision of the Madrilenian over the city of Sao Paulo . It was reflected in an exhibition in 2010 in the Pinacoteca do Estado, curated by Bonet and titled "Fervor da metrópole" (Fervor of the metropolis).
A trip which lasted a few days, exhaustively prepared, and that made a special review of the city's architecture in the twentieth century. This preparation generated a knowledge whcih served as a basis for the process of image capture, the result of which allowed Ballester to make a novel, different graphic contribution of a city so profusely photographed. Inspiration always has the flat ass.
Bonet's text is a delicious description of concomitant causes, encounters, memories, reunions and walks, talks with friends ... As he says, a "rotten pot" which also includes poems and allows us to understand the visual construction the Ballester images show in the book.
The text is also the narrative about an architectural, imaginary vision about the history of the Brazilian city, which is also partly shown by Ballester. From the impressive view of the Copan building at dusk to the park Ibirapuera, Niemeyer is a repeated protagonist. Also works by Burle Marx, Mina Klabin, Gregorio Warchavchik, Flávio de Carvalho, David Libeskind, constantly Le Corbusier, Paulo Mendes da Rocha and of course much mentioned Lina Bobardi ... with houses like Vila Mariana, apartments of workers, Avenida Paulista, The legendary Livraria Cultura, obviously also the Masp, the portico of the Prada do Patriarca or its store Forma, Estaçao da Luz and more Lina Bo Bardi in the cultural and social center Sesc Pompeya, park, houses, buildings and avenues in a litany almost Infinite and impressive, if one thinks that it is the narrative of the drifts of a week in the case of Bonet or of two in the case of the "photographer and painter" José Manuel Ballester.
After reading Bonet Ballester's images, and I can say without knowing the city directly that despite the drunkenness which during all these years has come to my eyes of images of that city, coming up to dream I have really visited, seeing the images of Ballester the city seems different, masterfully beautiful and new. An absolutely recommendable book.
More information
Title
Fervor da Metrópole. José Manuel Ballester. Juan Manuel Bonet.
Editorial
Dan Galeria
ISBN
978-8562079-10-8
Photography
Por José Manuel Ballester
Texts
Por Juan Manuel Bonet
Number of pages
228
Language
Portuguese, Spanish, English
JOSÉ MANUEL BALLESTER
José Manuel Ballester (Madrid, 1960) is a painter and a photographer. Degree in Fine Arts, 1984. Since then he has won various awards and scholarships. He has participated in a lot of exhibitions all over the world, including the international ARCO fair for the last ten years. His work forms part of the collection of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and it has been exhibited in Beijing, Canada, New York, London, Sao Paulo, France, Germany, Tokyo and Colombia. First Prize in Painting in the XVIII Biennial of Alexandria and the National Print Award, 1998.Premio Nacional de Fotografía 2010.
His artistic career began with a particular attention on the technique of the Italian and Flemish painting of the XV and XVIII centuries. Since 1990, he started to blend painting and photography. We can highlight, between his numerous exhibitions, Lugares de paso, Valencia, 2003; Setting Out, New York, 2003; or Habitación 523, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2005; and recently Fervor de metrópolis, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, 2011; La abstracción de la realidad, Sala Alcalá 31, Community of Madrid and DA2, Salamanca, 2011; and Espacios ocultos in the Spanish Academy, Rome, 2012. He has taken part in numerous group exhibitions in art fairs as ARCO, Art Chicago, Artforum Germany, Paris Photo and Art Miami and in cities such as Dallas, Paris, Miami, São Paulo, Dubai, Beijing, Shanghai, Toronto and many others. And some more current ones like: Gli Spazi Nascosti di José Manuel Ballester Nei Palazzi di Genova, Museo di Palazzo Reale e Musei di Strada Nuova, Genoa, Italy (2017), Paisajes encontrados: El Bosco, El Greco, Goya, Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid, Spain (2016), Museos en blanco, Ivorypress, Madrid, Spain (2015).
ACT > 10/05/2018
JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
José Juan Barba (1964) architect from ETSA Madrid in 1991. Special Mention in the National Finishing University Education Awards 1991. PhD in Architecture ETSAM, 2004. He founded his professional practice in Madrid in 1992 (www.josejuanbarba.com). He is an architecture critic and editor-in-chief of METALOCUS magazine since 1999, and he was advising different NGOs until 1997. He has been a lecturer (in Design, Theory and Criticism, and Urban planning) and guest lecturer at different national and international universities (Roma TRE, Polytechnic Milan, ETSA Madrid, ETSA Barcelona, UNAM Mexico, Univ. Iberoamericana Mexico, University of Thessaly Volos, FA de Montevideo, Washington, Medellin, IE School, U.Alicante, Univ. Europea Madrid, UCJC Madrid, ESARQ-U.I.C. Barcelona,...).
Maître de Conférences IUG-UPMF Grenoble 2013-14. Full assistant Professor, since 2003 up to now at the University of Alcalá School of Architecture, Madrid, Spain. And Jury in competitions as Quaderns editorial magazine (2011), Mies van der Rohe Awards, (2010-2022), Europan13 (2015). He has been invited to participate in the Biennale di Venezia 2016 as part "Spaces of Exception / Spazi d'Eccezione".
He has published several books, the last in 2016, "#positions" and in 2015 "Inventions: New York vs. Rem Koolhaas, Bernard Tschumi, Piranesi " and collaborations on "Spaces of Exception / Spazi d'Eccezione", "La Mansana de la discordia" (2015), "Arquitectura Contemporánea de Japón: Nuevos territorios" (2015)...
Awards.-
- Award. RENOVATION OF SEGURA RIVER ENVIRONMENT, Murcia, Sapin, 2010.
- First Prize, RENOVATION GRAN VÍA, “Delirious Gran Vía”, Madrid, Spain, 2010.
- First Prize, “PANAYIOTI MIXELI Award”. SADAS-PEA, for the Spreading of Knowledge of Architecture Athens, 2005.
- First Prize, “SANTIAGO AMÓN Award," for the Spreading of Knowledge of Architecture. 2000.
- Award, “PIERRE VAGO Award." ICAC -International committee of Art Critics. London, 2005.
- First Prize, C.O.A.M. Madrid, 2000. Shortlisted, World Architecture Festival. Centro de Investigación e Interpretación de los Ríos. Tera, Esla y Orbigo, Barcelona, 2008.
- First Prize. FAD AWARD 07 Ephemeral Interventions. “M.C.ESCHER”. Arquin-Fad. Barcelona, Sapin 2007.
Juan Manuel Bonet
Juan Manuel Bonet. (Paris, 1953) is a writer and a critic of art and literature and has been curator of exhibitions. Director of the Instituto Cervantes since January 27, 2017, he has directed the Instituto Cervantes in Paris between 2012 and 2017 and has previously been director of the IVAM (Valencian Institute of Modern Art) and the National Museum of Art Reina Sofía (Madrid). President of the Rafael Cansinos Assens Archive Foundation and the Vicente Huidobro Foundation International Committee.
Author of several books of poems recently grouped in Via Labirinto; Of the diary The round of the days; Of the reference work Dictionary of the avant-gardes in Spain (1907-1936), completed by Avant-garde Printed in Spain (1912-1936); Of a book about Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Ramón in his Tower; Of critical editions of, among others, Max Aub, Salvador Dalí, José María Eguren and Rafael Lasso de la Vega; And of monographs on, among others, Juan Gris, Ramón Gaya, Gerardo Rueda, Martín Chirino, Pelayo Ortega and Miguel Galano.
Curator of exhibitions, between them ‘1980’, ‘Madrid D.F.’, ‘Imprenta y poesía’, ‘Pintura contemporánea española’, ‘Espagne Arte abstracto 1950-1965’, ‘El surrealismo entre Viejo y Nuevo Mundo’, ‘El objeto surrealista en España’, ‘Ciudad de ceniza: El surrealismo en la posguerra española’, ‘Los años pintados’, ‘Muelle de Levante’, ‘El poeta como artista’, ‘El ultraísmo y las artes plásticas’, ‘De Picasso a Dalí: Las raíces de la vanguardia española’, ‘Literatura argentina de vanguardia’, ‘España años 50’, ‘El colegio Estudio: Una aventura pedagógica en la España de la posguerra’, ‘El efecto iceberg: Colección Museo ABC’, ‘Un mundo construido: Polonia 1918-1939’ and ‘Una mirada española: Manolo Escobar coleccionista’.
Curator of retrospectives de, between them, Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Giorgio Morandi, Tarsila do Amaral, Henri Michaux, Henryk Stazewski, Francisco Bores, Juan Manuel Díaz-Caneja, Ramón Gaya, Eugenio Fernández Granell, Esteban Vicente, José Guerrero, Manolo Millares, Lucio Muñoz, Manuel H. Mompó, Julio López Hernández, Alex Katz or Dis Berlin.
To add he has been curator of other expositions about photographers (José Manuel Ballester, Javier Campano, Francesc Catalá Roca, Jesse Fernández, Bernard Plossu, Leopoldo Pomés, Josef Sudek), writters (Rafael Alberti, Max Aub, Julio Cortázar, Alfredo Gangotena, Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Tadeusz Peiper, Francisco Vighi), politicians (Juan Negrín) and composers (Morton Feldman, Ricardo Viñes).
Author of several books of poems recently grouped in Via Labirinto; Of the diary The round of the days; Of the reference work Dictionary of the avant-gardes in Spain (1907-1936), completed by Avant-garde Printed in Spain (1912-1936); Of a book about Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Ramón in his Tower; Of critical editions of, among others, Max Aub, Salvador Dalí, José María Eguren and Rafael Lasso de la Vega; And of monographs on, among others, Juan Gris, Ramón Gaya, Gerardo Rueda, Martín Chirino, Pelayo Ortega and Miguel Galano.
Curator of exhibitions, between them ‘1980’, ‘Madrid D.F.’, ‘Imprenta y poesía’, ‘Pintura contemporánea española’, ‘Espagne Arte abstracto 1950-1965’, ‘El surrealismo entre Viejo y Nuevo Mundo’, ‘El objeto surrealista en España’, ‘Ciudad de ceniza: El surrealismo en la posguerra española’, ‘Los años pintados’, ‘Muelle de Levante’, ‘El poeta como artista’, ‘El ultraísmo y las artes plásticas’, ‘De Picasso a Dalí: Las raíces de la vanguardia española’, ‘Literatura argentina de vanguardia’, ‘España años 50’, ‘El colegio Estudio: Una aventura pedagógica en la España de la posguerra’, ‘El efecto iceberg: Colección Museo ABC’, ‘Un mundo construido: Polonia 1918-1939’ and ‘Una mirada española: Manolo Escobar coleccionista’.
Curator of retrospectives de, between them, Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Giorgio Morandi, Tarsila do Amaral, Henri Michaux, Henryk Stazewski, Francisco Bores, Juan Manuel Díaz-Caneja, Ramón Gaya, Eugenio Fernández Granell, Esteban Vicente, José Guerrero, Manolo Millares, Lucio Muñoz, Manuel H. Mompó, Julio López Hernández, Alex Katz or Dis Berlin.
To add he has been curator of other expositions about photographers (José Manuel Ballester, Javier Campano, Francesc Catalá Roca, Jesse Fernández, Bernard Plossu, Leopoldo Pomés, Josef Sudek), writters (Rafael Alberti, Max Aub, Julio Cortázar, Alfredo Gangotena, Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Tadeusz Peiper, Francisco Vighi), politicians (Juan Negrín) and composers (Morton Feldman, Ricardo Viñes).
