May
15
Before photography really took off, before we were all carrying around digital cameras in our pockets, and long before the creation of live streaming everything from weather to puppies, an intrepid French archaeologist and explorer set out to capture the Mayan ruins on film. For four years, between 1857 and 1861 Claude-Joseph Désiré Charnay collected relics and photographed ruins throughout South America resulting in a mostly forgotten report in Eugene Viollet-le-Ducs’ Cités et ruines américaines.
The beauty of mostly forgotten reports such as Désiré Charnay’s, is when someone, somewhere, finds them and sees how magical they are. Mexican artist José Luis Bravo’s current exhibition, Paysages avec Ruines, at Barcelona’s H20 Gallery has taken the original works by Désiré Charnay and recreated the original journey through Mexico as well as turning his eye towards Roman ruins in France, effectively reversing the original exploration. The 1857 photographs were taken with a camera obscura. In Bravo’s Désiré Charnay-inspired expedition, he used a camera that takes digital images in the same style as the originals.
The exploration is one of memory and the reconstruction of a world that no longer exists. Fundamental to an understanding of the photographs is the path that is used to travel back and forth between the two countries, the same path that was likely used during the last century of colonialism. You can expect an exhibition that triggers memories of the types ruins that lay in every country and the early journeys that were taken to document them, as well as the Western worlds never ending fascination with cultures and practices that lay outside our comfort zone.
The exhibition runs through the 28th of May.
In your explorations of Barcelona, you’re going to need a base. Somewhere you can escape the excitement for a siesta, or perhaps an afternoon dip in the rooftop terrace pool. Sound tempting? Then Hotel Omm is what you’re looking for. Take the day off with a tan and a swim, and get a jump on the evening by starting it at the Roca Brother’s guided Moo Restaurant.
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