Both exhibitions seek photographic language to represent issues related to the environment, the human relationship with the landscape, and the care for nature. The first exhibition "De arboris perennis" by José Manuel Ballester, is a recognition of the photographer's career, and the second is a collective exhibition of the finalists of the ENAIRE Foundation Photography Awards 2023, with Marina Vargas as the winner of the awards.
The director of the Royal Botanical Garden, Maria Paz Martí Esteban; the director of PHotoESPAÑA, Claude Bussac, and the artist José Manuel Ballester, visited the exhibition where they talked with the winners, whose works will form part of the ENAIRE Collection of Contemporary Art.
Jose Manuel Ballester. Spring, 2015.
De arboris perennis, the latest project by José Manuel Ballester
José Manuel Ballester, National Photography Award and IV ENAIRE Foundation Career Award, presents "De arboris perennis" at the Villanueva Pavilion, a project in which the photographer turns trees into protagonists to draw attention to our relationship with the environment environment.
José Manuel Ballester's work stems from an intense inner search, an infinite curiosity that leads him to capture those elements that surround and move him.
The project includes works from different series, and begins with its "hidden spaces", images of masterpieces of painting that highlight the landscape backgrounds that remained in the background. They are environments in which human presence is not visible, among them Giotto's forest stands out.
Along with these images, the exhibition presents a narrative through very different places, from New York skyscrapers, a remote temple in Sichuan, metro exits in large cities, Parisian parks, the Brazilian jungle, gardens or orchards. In all of them the element that is repeated recurrently is the tree.
Jose Manuel Ballester. Road to the monastery, 2014-2020.
For Ballester, the botanical gardens are beloved and sought after places. In addition, the one in Madrid has had a particular significance since his years as a student of Fine Arts. Showing his own creation in this context, this fusion between space and works, supposes for the artist a symbiosis with a very special meaning.
The exhibition, which brings together 38 large-format works, is curated by Lola Durán Úcar, a PhD in Art History, and is completed with an 80-page catalogue, co-published with La Fábrica.
In addition, as part of the "De arboris perennis" project, a unique experience is proposed: a walk through the trees of the Botanical Garden selected by the author and accompanied by some of his favorite poems, recited by Carlos del Amor.
The collective exhibition of the ENAIRE Foundation Photography Awards 2023
The south wing of the Villanueva Pavilion hosts the collective exhibition with the winners and finalists of the ENAIRE Foundation Awards 2023.
Marina Vargas, with her work Romper el canon (2021) has been awarded the first prize.
The director of the Royal Botanical Garden, Maria Paz Martí Esteban; the director of PHotoESPAÑA, Claude Bussac, and the artist José Manuel Ballester, visited the exhibition where they talked with the winners, whose works will form part of the ENAIRE Collection of Contemporary Art.
Jose Manuel Ballester. Spring, 2015.
De arboris perennis, the latest project by José Manuel Ballester
José Manuel Ballester, National Photography Award and IV ENAIRE Foundation Career Award, presents "De arboris perennis" at the Villanueva Pavilion, a project in which the photographer turns trees into protagonists to draw attention to our relationship with the environment environment.
José Manuel Ballester's work stems from an intense inner search, an infinite curiosity that leads him to capture those elements that surround and move him.
The project includes works from different series, and begins with its "hidden spaces", images of masterpieces of painting that highlight the landscape backgrounds that remained in the background. They are environments in which human presence is not visible, among them Giotto's forest stands out.
Along with these images, the exhibition presents a narrative through very different places, from New York skyscrapers, a remote temple in Sichuan, metro exits in large cities, Parisian parks, the Brazilian jungle, gardens or orchards. In all of them the element that is repeated recurrently is the tree.
Jose Manuel Ballester. Road to the monastery, 2014-2020.
For Ballester, the botanical gardens are beloved and sought after places. In addition, the one in Madrid has had a particular significance since his years as a student of Fine Arts. Showing his own creation in this context, this fusion between space and works, supposes for the artist a symbiosis with a very special meaning.
The exhibition, which brings together 38 large-format works, is curated by Lola Durán Úcar, a PhD in Art History, and is completed with an 80-page catalogue, co-published with La Fábrica.
In addition, as part of the "De arboris perennis" project, a unique experience is proposed: a walk through the trees of the Botanical Garden selected by the author and accompanied by some of his favorite poems, recited by Carlos del Amor.
The collective exhibition of the ENAIRE Foundation Photography Awards 2023
The south wing of the Villanueva Pavilion hosts the collective exhibition with the winners and finalists of the ENAIRE Foundation Awards 2023.
Marina Vargas, with her work Romper el canon (2021) has been awarded the first prize.
"ormal perfection and the academic overtones of the image that, far from narrating a costumbrist image inside an art academy, what apparently seems like a drawing session from life, becomes a manifesto, since the author is showing her body and her scars proudly and bravely as various artists portray her. It is her way of breaking with the canon".
The jury stood out.
ENAIRE Foundation. Bosques Foundation Cristóbal Ascencio Third Prize Photography.
The second prize went to Jonás Bel and Rafael Trapiello for the work San Mamés de Burgos (2023) and the third went to Cristóbal Ascencio Ramos for his work Bosques (2023).
Along with the three winning works, the exhibition includes 15 finalist photographs of the edition, including the special mention PHotoESPAÑA, awarded to "My mother's wedding glassware II (2022)" by photographer Alfonso Almendros.
The rest of the selected works are: UFO Presences (2019), by Javier Arcenillas; Isla Santonegro 3 (2020), by Josep María Sau; The hidden world (2022), by David Flores Torrecillas; natural landscape continuous coast (2022), by Carma Casulá; Untitled from the series El Paraíso Come Carne (2018-2022), by Elena de la Rúa; Eco-003 (2022), by Lidia Esther Díaz Gil; Intermediate Geometries No. 15 (2022), by Rosa Muñoz; Pi negre (2022), by Eva Miquel Tortosa; Clareo (2022), by Ana Amado; Üyler Temirtau (2017) by Esther García Rodríguez; Helena María (2023), by Paola Bragado; Upper City Tower (2021), by María Rodríguez Cadenas; Empty yourself to receive (2022) by Macarena Gross and A Democracy in Fatigue II (2023), by Gloria Oyarzabal.
