GENS PUMPS. Of. Burjassot, 54
Bombas Gens Center d’Art continues to bet heavily on photography in its two lustrous exhibitions, inaugurated on the same day as the back garden and a medieval cellar discovered in 2016 during the rehabilitation works of the complex. The first sample, The pulse of the body, It is a reflection on the way we relate, We occupy and use the street and leisure spaces, work and consumption. It is also the meeting of some of the most important photographers of the 20th century., First Swords as Helen Levitt, Cartier-Bresson o Robert Frank. The characters in the photographs make up a social body that inhabits and lives the city., that transforms and is influenced by the space that surrounds it. Levitt exhibits snapshots that capture the atmosphere of New York in the 1990s. 40, from Frank we can see an appetizer of the series The Americans (exhibited at the IVAM a few months ago) and his photographs about Valencia 1952 and Cartier Bresson captures images of Madrid and Alicante before the outbreak of the Civil War (1933-34). These are the artists with the most names, but Bombas Gens shows the real muscle by displaying the work of others less in the media such as Francesca Woodman, David Goldblatt, the very interesting Matt Mullican, Manolo Laguillo, Sanja Ivekovic about Xavier Ribas, whose series of photographs focuses on the vacant peripheries that the city creates, occupied by people and converted into places of leisure. A perfect example of the spirit that weaves the exhibition together.
A few years after Cartier-Bresson and Frank wandered through Spain, would arrive in Malaga , author of the hundred photographs from the Per Amor a l'Art collection shown in the exhibition towards the light. A pioneering documentary photographer in the use of color – at a time when photography was not considered a serious form of art – Meyerowitz was an American living during the Franco dictatorship (years 66-67) that he captured, according to his words, the “lack of joy” that was breathed in the streets as a result of the atmosphere created by the regime. Autocracy sneaks into the images (the leadenness of the State, the strict surveillance of the Civil Guard, the fake Francoist referendums…), folklore (flamenco, steps of Holy Week…) y, above all, everyday life (men with hat, women doing shopping, portions of mussels…).
Three additional sweets make the visit to this old hydraulic pump factory even more attractive.. The first is the transformation of the back field into a beautiful lush and colorful modernist garden where nature makes its way through the architecture.. The exotic blends with the Valencian (citrus, palm trees, a carob tree, an olive tree…) creating a haven of peace in the back room. The second candy is contained in the first, it's a site specific by the artist Cristina Iglesias totally integrated into the landscape and emerging from the earth emulating the bed of a river. Relaxing green roots with water flowing through them refer to their surroundings (the Turia River and the ditches that were in the area) and to the overflow of nature, that is always there and ends up emerging. Iglesias has sculpted water in this nature-fiction that breathes life into the landscape. The third attraction is a winery in operation from the European invasion of America until the 17th century that belonged to an old farmhouse that has now disappeared and contains construction elements to store wine such as continuous benches on which jugs and barrels were placed., and a pond to collect the must that arrived from others where the grapes were trampled (has been preserved). Both the winery and the garden, with the sculptural work of Cristina Iglesias, They can only be enjoyed on a guided tour. S.M.
