IVAN FRANCO FRAGA

The main idea behind the exhibition is to define the space that exists between the pictorial and the photographic; to transit through the line that shapes the border, the limit, between the two media. And by identifying this space, by inhabiting it and recognising it, the intention is to overlap other concepts that coexist antagonistically, such as reality-fiction or presence-absence.

By blurring these boundaries, the onlooker is invited to question the appearance of the images from their structure. To question what they perceive in them, whether the simulacrum was ever more reality than fiction or a portrait specifies more an absence than a presence. Therefore, the image presented is not focused on representing the real, true, false or imaginary. However, all is only an illusion crafted in hand by the artist.

Ivan Franco’s work start with a mental image he thinks is enticing. He then tries to shape that image through photography. In Ivan’s words ‘In terms of our visual education, a very high percentage of what we know comes through photography. It has become a way of seeing, understanding, and expressing. The passage to the pictorial, although it seems inconsequential, comes to shape the pillars of my work.’