The Andalusian Centre of Photography, managed by the Regional Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport through the Andalusian Agency of Cultural Institutions, celebrates its thirtieth anniversary with an exhibition dedicated to Carlos Pérez Siquier and various activities related to the brilliant photographer that will end with the closing of the exhibition on 9 April. Siquier Collection’ was officially inaugurated today with the attendance of the Director General of Historical Heritage and Cultural Innovation and Promotion of the Regional Government of Andalusia, Mario Martín Pareja, the manager of the Andalusian Agency of Cultural Institutions, Almudena Bocanegra, and the curator Juan María Rodríguez.
The exhibition consists of 90 photographs that trace the career of one of the great innovators of contemporary Spanish photography, winner of the 2003 National Photography Prize. The works come mainly from the Andalusian Centre of Photography’s collection, but also from the Ibáñez Cosentino Art Foundation, a collaborating entity. The exhibition includes pieces from his works ‘La Chanca’, ‘Informalismos’, ‘La playa’, ‘Color del Sur’, ‘Almería – Granada – Sevilla. Un viaje en tren’, ‘Imágenes de la Maestranza’, ‘La Briseña’ and ‘Mi sombra y yo’ among others, and 16 more works by contemporary photographers.
The exhibition also houses three displays with collector’s editions of books on Pérez Siquier on loan from the curator of the exhibition, together with a collection of original posters of his exhibitions, as well as objects never before exhibited such as photographs from the family’s private album, his cameras and other personal objects provided by his daughter Gloria Pérez Siquier. In addition, users will have at their disposal an extensive room brochure which includes a 16-page insert with images of the author.
Mario Martín pointed out that with this exhibition the Regional Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport «celebrates a work that has made us more sensitive, more human, more perceptive and more intelligent, because photography is a way of thinking and Pérez Siquier gave us many things through it». The director general stressed that the exhibition «and we couldn’t think of a better travelling companion to do it with than the great Pérez Siquier, opens a new era for the CAF to which we decidedly renew and extend our support».
The curator of the exhibition, Juan María Rodríguez, emphasised that Pérez Siquier: «knew how to be in tune with the spirit of his time and, with his own genuine gaze in continuous renewal, he anticipated the new photographic trends of the future and was a pioneer in the international use of colour». Rodríguez has maintained a friendly relationship with Pérez Siquier for 40 years. He has held photography exhibitions and directs the podcast Full Frame, a reference for auteur photography in Spain. He is a populariser of photography, editor and curator of the forthcoming work of Juan Manuel Díaz Burgos, a leading Spanish documentary photographer.
Parallel activities
The CAF has a wide-ranging programme of parallel activities including workshops and visits. The curator Juan María Rodríguez will guide the public on three visits: on the 15th at 11.30 am and 7.30 pm and on the 16th December at 11.30 am. The visits will continue as part of the ‘Let yourself be carried away’ programme developed by the CAF with expert mediators and which aims to provide the public with knowledge about the figure of this great photographer in his facets and fundamental stages. By looking through the author’s eyes, the audience will find significant reflections of our society and local culture. This tour has been christened ‘The gaze of Carlos Pérez Siquier’ and is organised on 17th, 22nd and 29th December, on Thursdays in two shifts, 11.30am and 7.30pm, and on Saturdays at 11.30am. All visits will last approximately 50 minutes and have a capacity of 20 people.
In the workshops section, children aged 7 to 12 will enjoy sessions led by experts in arts education on 27 and 28 December at 11.30 am. They will last between 90 and 120 minutes with a maximum of 15 participants. They will not only get to know the work of the photographer from Almería, but will also learn about art through spatial experience and photography, for which they will be required to bring a digital camera, mobile phone or tablet. Registration for this activity will open on 19 December. For adults, the Cadiz photographer Antonio Pérez, last winner of the Pérez Siquier Prize, will be holding a workshop in the La Chanca neighbourhood between 24 and 26 March 2023.
Registration is free and can be made by emailing info.caf.aaiicc@juntadeandalucia.es or calling 950 18 63 60/61.
In addition to these activities, on 15 and 16 March a conference will be held where the figure and work of Pérez Siquier will be analysed by some of his curators together with other experts, such as the editor and historian Chema Conesa and the editors Mauricio D’Ors, Antonio Lafarque and Nicolás Ramírez, among others. Finally, documentaries related to the exhibition will be screened, the first being ‘Azul Siquier’ directed by Felipe Vega.
The exhibition, in an emotional gesture of celebration and remembrance, will be inaugurated on 14 December to coincide with the date of Pérez Siquier’s birth. After its completion in April, it will begin its tour of centres throughout Spain. The public opening begins with a musical prelude by the Clasijazz Duo, composed of Julián Sánchez on trumpet and Pablo Mazuecos on piano at 20:00.
Carlos Pérez Siquier. Profile
Born in Almería on 14 December 1930. Together with José María Artero, he founds AFAL, a magazine that will bring together a group of Spanish photographers who initiated a process of photographic renewal in the mid-20th century, and co-directs the Spanish Photography Yearbook. In 2003, the Ministry awarded him the National Photography Prize and he received the Gold Medal of Andalusia. In 2005 the Consejería de Cultura de la Regional Government of Andalusia awarded him the Pablo Ruiz Picasso Prize for Plastic Arts. In 2013 he received the Bartolomé Ros award «for his work as a promoter of photography through the AFAL group and for his work in colour, which opened the doors to the expansion of the frontiers of photography in the sixties and seventies».
His work is in the permanent collections of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Telefónica, La Caixa, Foto Colectania and Alcobendas foundations, the Cualladó and Ordóñez Falcó collections, as well as the Centro Atlático de Arte Moderno de Las Palmas and the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Granada and in the collections of the Centro Andaluz de la Fotografía. As a representative of Spanish photography, he has participated in several editions of the International Contemporary Art Fair. In September 2017 the Ibáñez Cosentino Art Foundation inaugurated the Pérez Siquier Centre dedicated entirely to his photographic work.
Andalusian Centre of Photography. 30th anniversary.
The Andalusian Centre of Photography was born from the experience of the Imagina project, developed in Almeria between 1990 and 1992 on the occasion of the commemoration of the V Centenary of the Discovery of America. This initiative was the first time in Spain that artists of international prestige travelled to Almería to exhibit their photographs – approximately seventy exhibitions were held – and, at the same time, they produced photographs in different places in the province of Almería, such as the desert, the coast or the city – 456 images were brought together in an exhibition of the same name as the project and collected in a catalogue published by the centre itself. Subsequently, the Regional Government of Andalusia, by decree of 24 November 1992, created the Andalusian Centre of Photography with the valuable funds inherited from the Imagina project and with the aim of continuing to promote the interest it had aroused both nationally and internationally.
Since then, the CAF has amassed a volume of works that have made it a reference centre in the field of photography both nationally and internationally.
A large number of photographs are on display in its collections through the countless projects and exhibitions that have given the CAF a prominent place, becoming one of the few institutions dedicated exclusively to photography in our country.
Opening hours
The ‘Siquier Collection’ will remain open until 9 April every day from 11:00 to 14:00 and from 17:30 to 21:30. The only days closed are 24, 25 and 31 December 2022, 1, 5 (in the afternoon) and 6 January 2023.