The exhibition showcases twelve light boxes created by Joan Fontcuberta (Barcelona, 1955), a result of the Spanish artist’s dialogue with the extraordinary historical collections of the ICCD, the Central Institute for Cataloging and Documentation of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage. Fontcuberta, an artist, photographer, and writer, explores the very nature of photography through three different access keys: memory, time, and materiality. In his exploration, there is a reference to dust as a symbol of the passage of time and the slow dissolution of photographic images, a material decay that “generates an ‘amnesic’ photography.” Fontcuberta highlights the paradox between the immutability of the image and the deteriorability of the device on which it is fixed, in a provocative and ironic dialogue that, with the allusion of the title Cultura di polvere (lit. Culture of Dust), extends to include Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, and their famous work Élevage de poussière.
The exhibition inaugurates the new season at Fortuny with a reflection not only on the common nationality between the artist and the “host,” but also on the deep connection of this place with photography, from the early experiments of Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo to the preservation of the rich collection of the Civic Museums of Venice. Cultura di Polvere thus outlines a profound connection between Fontcuberta and the historical-artistic context of Fortuny, bridging past innovations with contemporary explorations and emphasizing the ongoing evolution of photography as an expressive medium.
