Just before disappearing. Syria by Pío Cabanillas
10/09/2019.
La Fábrica Gallery [MAD] Spain
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
Today, Tuesday, September 10, at 7:30 p.m., the gallery La Fábrica opens the season with an exhibition in homage to a missing Syria. The exhibition includes twenty images of Cabanillas taken in the country in 2009, shortly before the outbreak of the war that has ravaged Syria.
Palmira 1. Syria, an exhibition by Pío Cabanillas. Image courtesy of La Fábrica
Palmira 5. Syria, an exhibition by Pío Cabanillas. Image courtesy of La Fábrica
Palmira 2. Syria, an exhibition by Pío Cabanillas. Image courtesy of La Fábrica
Palmira 3. Syria, an exhibition by Pío Cabanillas. Image courtesy of La Fábrica
Hama 1. Syria, an exhibition by Pío Cabanillas. Image courtesy of La Fábrica
Palmira 4. Syria, an exhibition by Pío Cabanillas. Image courtesy of La Fábrica 4. Siria, una exposición de Pío Cabanillas. Imagen cortesía de La Fábrica
Aphamea 1. Syria, an exhibition by Pío Cabanillas. Image courtesy of La Fábrica 4. Siria, una exposición de Pío Cabanillas. Imagen cortesía de La Fábrica
Aphamea 4. Syria, an exhibition by Pío Cabanillas. Image courtesy of La Fábrica 4. Siria, una exposición de Pío Cabanillas. Imagen cortesía de La Fábrica
Catalog, cover. Syria, an exhibition of Pío Cabanillas. Image courtesy of La Fábrica
On this trip the author had the opportunity to photograph monuments and places today disappeared or destroyed by the conflict. His images are beautiful memories of a world that no longer exists, and are erected in silent denunciation of the ravages of war, destroyer of a heritage not already Syrian but worldwide, which forms a part of the memory of humanity.
The exhibition reflects not only on beauty, but also on the loss and immaterial character of culture. These images stubbornly remember that, in the face of the huge losses in lives and artistic legacy, barbarism can never erase from the memory the greatness of a people and the civilizations that settled there. They are a tribute in black and white to peace, beauty and culture.
Along with the exhibition, a book has been published that includes the complete expedition and that has as an introduction several fragments of the Guide for Innocent Travelers, by Mark Twain, who visited the country in 1867, and with an exquisite selection of authors' poems Syrian classics, many of them unpublished so far in Spanish. These poems, selected by the translator Jaafar Al Aluni, evoke the epic world of Gilgames and Hammurabi, the memory of the stones, the power of the word or the first love poem in Sumeria, and make up, together with the snapshots, a portrait intimate country.
The book has more than 80 black and white images and is structured in different chapters that receive the title of the photographed enclaves: Palmira, Crac de los Caballeros, San Simeón, Hama, Aphamea, Damascus, Bosra and Aleppo.
This exhibition and the book pay tribute to civilization, to the colossal glow of human creativity in the first great empires, to the artistic singularity resulting from the confluence in Syria of the three great monotheistic religions, or to the cavalcade wandering of the caravans that during centuries held Europe and Asia together. The legacy transcends material loss to integrate as an essential part of the cultural identity of the Syrian people and, by extension, of all humanity.
Pío Cabanillas (Madrid, 1958) has exhibited his photographs in different individual exhibitions in recent years: Water (Maternal Gallery and Heritage, 2014); Shadows (PHotoEspaña, Maternal Gallery and Inheritance, 2015); Gea (La Fábrica, 2017); Baroque (PhotoEspaña, Maternal Gallery and Inheritance, 2017); and Grooves (Aina Nowack Gallery, 2018).
The exhibition reflects not only on beauty, but also on the loss and immaterial character of culture. These images stubbornly remember that, in the face of the huge losses in lives and artistic legacy, barbarism can never erase from the memory the greatness of a people and the civilizations that settled there. They are a tribute in black and white to peace, beauty and culture.
Along with the exhibition, a book has been published that includes the complete expedition and that has as an introduction several fragments of the Guide for Innocent Travelers, by Mark Twain, who visited the country in 1867, and with an exquisite selection of authors' poems Syrian classics, many of them unpublished so far in Spanish. These poems, selected by the translator Jaafar Al Aluni, evoke the epic world of Gilgames and Hammurabi, the memory of the stones, the power of the word or the first love poem in Sumeria, and make up, together with the snapshots, a portrait intimate country.
The book has more than 80 black and white images and is structured in different chapters that receive the title of the photographed enclaves: Palmira, Crac de los Caballeros, San Simeón, Hama, Aphamea, Damascus, Bosra and Aleppo.
This exhibition and the book pay tribute to civilization, to the colossal glow of human creativity in the first great empires, to the artistic singularity resulting from the confluence in Syria of the three great monotheistic religions, or to the cavalcade wandering of the caravans that during centuries held Europe and Asia together. The legacy transcends material loss to integrate as an essential part of the cultural identity of the Syrian people and, by extension, of all humanity.
Pío Cabanillas (Madrid, 1958) has exhibited his photographs in different individual exhibitions in recent years: Water (Maternal Gallery and Heritage, 2014); Shadows (PHotoEspaña, Maternal Gallery and Inheritance, 2015); Gea (La Fábrica, 2017); Baroque (PhotoEspaña, Maternal Gallery and Inheritance, 2017); and Grooves (Aina Nowack Gallery, 2018).
More information
Dates
September 10 to November 3, 2019.
Venue
La Fabrica. Calle de la Alameda, 9, 28014 Madrid. Spain
Categories
Our selection
