MUSEUM EXHIBITION "CÀMARA I CIUTAT"

CRITICAL REFLECTION ON THE EXHIBITION SPACE

The following critical reflection on the exhition "Càmara i Ciutat" from Cosmocaixa has been done with Anna López, Andrea Moriana, Laia García, Eva Granero, Berta Montaña and me (Manel Márquez)

Explain how you value the intervention in space and distribution of the work in the rooms.

It was organised by chronological pictures and nationalities that were distributed by sections within the hall. The space was very well distributed because the visitor could walk around the whole room without losing track of the evolution and sequence of the pictures. Moreover, the rooms were big enough to allow a proper flow of people, allowing them to see the images in a quiet and comfortable way.

Describe colours and typefaces used to explain, to accompany and signal the work. Relate it to the work. Means, techniques and supports used.

The different areas of the exhibition were divided with some different aspects that had a purpose. The general aspect that we could appreciate that differentiates one area with another one was the colour of the walls, for example ones were painted in dark grey and some in white. The purpose of this was to divide one area to another one by means of time. You can see an example below of some of the pictures.

Another aspect that we could value is that the pictures represented had a specific frame. For instance, it could mean that all the pictures within an area that had the same frame could belong to the same artist, or to the same place, or to the same historical time, or to the same meaning, etc. You can see an example below of a lot of pictures that belong to the same artist. Also in the example, before it can be seen how there are two pictures of the same artist.

It was also quite interesting the way in which the information and the different pieces of art were showed, for instance in one of the parts of the museum there was a lot of newspapers of that specific time, and all this newspaper were displayed on a kiosk painted in the wall.

Another example of the originality of the museum where the interactive activities, placed almost at the end of the exhibition, in this activity we could create a specific scene with the different objects, like a boy riding a bike, a bench, a dog or clothes hanged, as in the following example.

REFLECTION ON THE ART PROPOSAL

What interested you the most?

Focusing on what interested us the most, we have to mention the quality and meaning of photographs and videos. All of them had an intention and a purpose to express some feelings or emotions to the spectator and through its high quality it was easily achieved.

What have you researched out of the classroom?

On the website of “CÀMARA I CIUTAT”, we found information about the purpose of the exhibition. It explained to us the way in which the photography has captured the essence of the XX century, depicting the streets as a social scenario of civic and political revolution. Apart from the information taken from the official website, we have also looked up some professional concepts on the way we can extract and figure out the meaning of a photography. Some of the concepts that we have learned about are the following:

-General vision
-Technique
-Composition 
-Meaning

What are the most interesting works? Why? What do they have in common?

The most interesting works are:

-André Kertész, París a l’estiu, una tarda de tempesta, 1925.

-Marc Riboud, La noia amb la flor, 1967.

-Valérie Jouve, Sense títol núm.3, 1994.

They were interesting for us because they transmitted sadness, and they showed situations that we are not used to see in pictures. La noia amb la flor and París a l’estiu are black and white pictures, while Sense títol núm. 3 is a coloured photography. They are all from the Musée National d’Art Moderne, París.

What does this exposition make you think about?

This exposition makes us think about how the modern cities were during the XXth century, by looking at photographs of streets as social scenery or a school playground. It makes us reflect on how it was to live in XXth century and think about how different it was from our current way of living.

Do you think it can inspire you to do a classroom intervention?

We really think this exhibition about photography and cinema throughout history can certainly be used as an inspiration to do classroom interventions. Taking into consideration the importance and analysis of moments captured, we could include in class discussion about the interpretation of the meaning that these pieces of work could have. Moreover, we could include the study of its characteristics and to do something more practical, for instance, working on some kind of contests based on photos taken by ourselves.

REFERENCES

Alfonso (n.d.). ¿Cómo hacer un análisis de una foto? Retrieved from https://www.reflejandome.com/aprende-fotografia/como-hacer-un-analisis-de-una-foto-2/

Caixa Forum (n.d.). Cámara y ciudad. La vida urbana en la fotografí­a y el cine | Actividades CaixaForum Barcelona. Retrieved January 13, 2020, from https://caixaforum.es/es/barcelona/p/camara-y-ciudad-la-vida-urbana-en-la-fotografia-y-el-cine_a581881