SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.- The Australian Centre for Photography (ACP) presents “Antirrealismos: Spanish Photomedia Now,” curated by Paco Barragán and on view through November 23, 2003. Presented by the Australian Centre for Photography with the generous support of INJUVE (Institute for the Youth), and the Contemporary Art Space Centro Párraga, Murcia.  

Antirrealismos: Spanish Photomedia Now is a group show which explores the ways in which a number of young artists from Spain are engaging with photography and video. It will present works made between 1997 and 2002 by 15 artists, including Olga Adelantado, Lara Almárcegui, César Álvarez, Sergio Belinchón, Mira Bernabeu, Chus García-Fraile, Miguel Ángel Gaüeca, Cristina Lucas, Enrique marty, Joan Morey, Aitor Ortiz, Ixone Sádaba, Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Jesús Segura and El Perro.  

“Antirrealismos: Spanish Photomedia Now is a politically incorrect exhibition. Collective exhibitions under a given national flag can often serve as a strategy for cultural marketing and political promotion, although this in itself guarantees nothing. So why have these young Spanish artists received little international attention? While the answer is complex, factors include among others a clear lack of interest by the larger institutions in promoting and supporting the work of young artists, and one as a curator has to make use of international platforms to promote a group of artists that are working in a coherent fashion that is worthy of the same kind of attention received by recent Finnish or Dutch art. So the exhibition is ‘politically incorrect’ in that it does not come with the capital P Politics of nationalistic cultural export. And it is surely not a “Real Royal Trip… by the Arts.” (Paco Barragán) . 

“But why photomedia? After 40 years of dictatorship, Spain’s ‘cultural catch-up’ with the other countries has come about precisely at the moment when photography and video have come of age, becoming the media of the moment across the international stage. These artists explore the boundless possibilities of staged photography and its performative nature, its relationship to painting and sculpture, the celebration of fashion and subculture, and the rise of narrative and the shift from ‘objectivity’ to the self-referential. Indeed, one might venture to say that this group of artists uses photography and video in a specifically anti-documentary way.” . 

The exhibition has been conceptually organized around four themes: 1) consumer society 2) urban landscape 3) socio-political visions, and 4) construction of personal identity. It will display a set of works that will try to give a deeper insight both in Spain’s society and in the contemporary video and photography practices.  

Antirrealismos: Spanish Photomedia Now is an Australian Centre for Photography Touring Exhibition.