PARIS.- In 1914, industrialist Josep Galceran Trepat created an industry for the production of agricultural machinery that would become one of the economic driving forces of Spain during the twentieth century. Cultivated man, attentive to the dynamics of the art of his time, Mr. Trepat commissioned some of the great masters of international photography for advertising and corporate image of his company. He was a connaisseur and very passionate about the work of Man Ray, Albert Renger-Patzsch, László Moholy Nagy, Alexander Rodchenko, Charles Sheeler, Walker Evans and many other photographers of the historical avant-garde that found in industrial forms an inspiring universe that would result in a complete aesthetical renovation.

A century after its founding, the Trepat Collection reveals itself as an unknown treasure of the history of photography. The MACSA (Museum of Archaeology of Agricultural Systems), in collaboration with the Historical Archive Trepat Tarrega (Lleida) has decided to present an exhibition commemorating the centenary of the Trepat factories. Curated by Joan Fontcuberta, a creator himself but also a historian and author of several works on the history of Spanish photography. This book published by Éditions Bessard accompanies the exhibition. In his introductory essay, the curator writes: "Looking at these works from a historical perspective and beyond its purely utilitarian origins, the images here masterfully show the experimental path of avant-garde movements: from Cubism to the New Objectivity, from Preciosism to Surrealism, from Constructivism to Social Realism ... ".

Joan Fontcuberta (born 24 February 1955 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain) is a conceptual artist whose best-known works, such as Fauna and Sputnik, examine the truthfulness of photography. In addition, he is a writer, editor, teacher, and curator.

Fontcuberta received a degree in communications from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1977. He worked in advertising in his early career, and his family had also worked in advertising. From 1979 to 1986 he was a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Barcelona, after which he earned a living through his art.

In 1980 he co-founded the Spanish/English visual arts journal PhotoVision, and he is still Editor in Chief. Since 1993 Fontcuberta has been a professor of audiovisual communication at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. Among other teaching appointments, he was visiting lecturer in Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University in 2003. Among other awards, he was named an Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture in 1994. His curatorial experience includes serving as the Artistic Director of the 1996 Rencontres d'Arles, an international photography festival. He exhibited at Les Rencontres d'Arles, France, in 2005 and 2009.


With information from Wikipedia.org