Un Paisaje en un Haba  |  A Landscape in a Bean

In March 2017, the ?! Careyes Foundation hosted Mauricio Maillé, Visual Arts Director of the Televisa Foundation, to curate a photography exhibition in the Careyes Art Space. The show, which opened during the ArteCareyes Film & Arts Festival 2017, featured a beautiful collection of coastal photography, captured by esteemed Mexican photographers.

Artists: Gabriel Batiz, Tomás Casademunt, Alex Dorfsman, Gabriel Figueroa Flores, Flor Garduño, Javier Hinojosa, Graciela Iturbide, José Jiménez, Eniac Martínez, Francisco Mata Rosas, Dolores Medel, Gerardo Montiel Klint, Pablo Ortíz Monasterio, Armando Salas Portugal, Teresa Villarreal

Curator's Statement: According to French philosopher Roland Barthes, some Buddhists, by force of asceticism, are able to see a whole landscape in a bean. It is also said that upon the arrival of the three caravels of Hernán Cortes, the natives who observed the event were not able to see the ships because that visual information had never existed for them. In a world as obstructed as that in which we currently live, we may consume more images in a year than a man of antiquity could see in a lifetime. Does that make us better observers? What capacity do we have to understand and decipher this visual vortex that contemporary society imposes upon us? I am afraid to say that it is not by consuming more images that we see better, but on the contrary, this incessant practice prevents us from exercising our gaze and returning, even a little, to the Buddhist act of concentrating our observation on an object that seems like nothing but a bean. It is therefore up to the individual to put into practice the exercise of the gaze.

When we are on the coast, we are presented with an opportunity to expand our urban limits, to see beyond, to broaden our horizons. The sea is a school in which we can learn to refine our ability to observe.

But what do we look at when we are facing the sea, when our eyes try to define the indefinable that is the infinite, what capacity do we have to decipher what surrounds us? Well, a photographer’s purpose is to understand the world through their lens, and with their photographic apparatus, capture evidence of these experiences.

The collection of images that comprise the ArteCareyes photography auction presents the vision of Mexican photographers who have focused their attention on the realm of the sea. Influenced by their own life experiences, each artist produces visual testimonies as diverse they are as poetic, presenting a rich panorama of the various means of constructing an artistic discourse from behind the lens of the camera. This collection of images is undoubtedly an opportunity to understand the vision of some of the most famous photographers of this country, as well as some contemporary voices that nourish the panorama of the image in Mexico.