Beyond the Single Image. Spanish Photography from the Foto Colectania Collection

This exhibition at “Art Basel Miami Beach 2024” showcases the evolution of photography in Southern Europe since the 1950s, and also features a guided tour and talk by Spanish artist and curator Carles Guerra on Spanish photography.
The exhibition Beyond the Single Image. Spanish Photography from the Foto Colectania Collection, Barcelona showcases 150 works by 36 artists from one of the most extensive photography collections in the Iberian Peninsula. Curated by Carles Guerra, the exhibition is organized into 20 thematic sequences, highlighting the evolution of photography and society in Southern Europe since the 1950s.
Featuring both contemporary talents like Laia Abril and Cristina de Middel, and established figures such as Pilar Aymerich and Joan Fontcuberta, the display transforms the collection into a dynamic narrative, encouraging new interpretations through connections and juxtapositions.
Guided tour with curator Carles Guerra
- On Tuesday, December 3 from from 11 am to 12 pm.
- Free, RSVP at [email protected].
In addition to the exhibition, Carles Guerra, curator of the exhibition, will give a guided tour of the Foto Colectania Collection, as it is installed in the Warehouse’s galleries, featuring compelling photographs that reveal an alternative narrative of Spanish photography. He will delve into the political dynamics that influenced the relationship between photographers and their subjects throughout the latter half of the 20th century, highlighting a significant paradigm shift from an extractivist approach to a more collaborative role within the medium.
Modernization often became synonymous with iconization, reducing and synthesizing reality into an emblematic image. These were the photographs that shaped events; although each event would have generated many more versions of what happened, only one image acquired iconic status. An image that is often recognized with just a tacit agreement. On the other hand, there are other collective events – demonstrations, processions, rituals – and crowds that evoke the inherently procedural and quantitative nature of photography as an alternative politics lurking in the crowd. These moments demand more than a single image. In fact, as many as possible, hence the title of the exhibition.
—Carles Guerra
Foto Colectania Foundation
The Foto Colectania Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Barcelona, Spain, created in 2002 with the aim of promoting photography and raising awareness of it in social, artistic, and educational spheres. Currently, Foto Colectania has become an active center for photography of international prestige, where it conducts exhibitions, activities, and projects related to photography. It also holds a collection of 3,000 photographs by more than 80 Spanish and Portuguese authors, which are displayed both at its headquarters and through an extensive program of traveling exhibitions. One of the foundation’s main objectives is to promote Spanish and Portuguese photography abroad.