Parallel Lines: Zona Maco
Carlos Aguirre
Written by Federica Belli
Photo Edited by Kelly Woodyard
Photography as a contemporary language has the largest variance in terms of quality, compared to the other art forms. Could it be its more recent nature? Could it be its daily use by every single human on this planet? The reasons for this are multiple and difficult to chain to one another, yet one of the main reasons is that the photographic language is definitely the one which has taken on the role to portray our contemporary reality in all its contradictions, being – together with video art – the only visual language which still has a direct link to our world. Thus, excluding the skillset necessary to generate a completely interior world as is required for painting or sculpting, it is only natural that the declinations and variations of photography become so varied and unpredictable.
That is the sensation one gets while walking through the corridors at ZonaMaco Foto. Roaming through the photography section of the biggest art fair in Mexico City – Zona Maco, taking place from February 7th to February 11th this year – the visitor can’t help but see how incoherent the contemporary offer of art photography and experimental photography is these days. However, with very few highlights in the midst of a general confusion, those coups de cœur become even more valuable and exciting.
The Mexican gallery Almanaque Fotografica offers a uniquely coherent and surprising collection of works: bringing together Persia Campbell who, through self-portrait explores the limits of her femininity, and Carlos Aguirre with his tridimensional approach to visual perception of reality, the gallery succeeds in inviting the viewer in an otherworldly dimension.
Momentum Fine Art, on the other hand, explores darkness and the portrayal of internal worlds through the magnificent black and white work Omatandangole by Aapo Huhta, who crafts a net of impressions and sensations in a combination of barely perceivable human figures and otherworldly landscapes.
Aapo Huhta
Anyhow, as seen in other fairs merging photography and other languages such as ArtBasel and ArteFiera, the best of photography is to be found in the main section, when galleries working with other languages show photography as well. Such is the case for instance of the Condo Gallery, showing a wonderful work by Richard T. Walker amongst paintings and sculptures.
In a way, the photography pushing visual expression to its limit and testing the boundaries between different languages are to be found in the borders, among those who find either the courage or the skill necessary to escape the niche of photography. Testing new territories and merging techniques in unexpected and sometimes senseless ways, visual artists are opening new ways to photography and finally introducing once and for all this versatile language in the altar of the so-called noble art languages.
Richard T. Walker
