The photographic exhibition Tot Comença amb una foto, a collective work of eight young people under guardianship who present their gazes and points of view is now open to the public in La Sala Oberta of the Cultural Centre La Nau. Universitat de València
La cultura es que tu mundo aloje el mundo del otro, que no sea un extraño (Culture is that your world contains another’s world, that is not a stranger).
Luis Pescetti.
From Tuesday, 5 November, the Sala Oberta of the Cultural Centre La Nau houses the photographic projects of the Valientes PhotOn collective, through which they share with the viewer what interests them, occupies them and worries them. Valientes PhotOn is a social intervention project that uses photography as a mean of expression to tell stories and document realities. This project was selected by the call Art for Change of La Caixa, who finances activities and workshops. It has also had the support of Pentax, who has provided the cameras with which the project had for its development. Reaching this moment has been possible thanks to the collaboration of the social entities that accompany the Valientes as a step towards maturity and the cultural entities of the City of Valencia that have welcomed the project activities. The Valientes PhotOn collective has bridge the gap what serves as a meeting point between the social and cultural sector of the city, the exhibition is an example of this.
The authors of this exhibition have been part of a participatory process in which they have decided the theme of their individual projects, decided the way they wanted to show it, discussed the title that the collective work has and even the way in which their work is communicated in the press has been consulted with each other; their voice is important on decision making and finding their creative voice and their story as adults is one of the goals of the project. They have been immersed in a process in which they and their workshops are part of the cultural supply of the city.
The photographic proposals of eight teenagers who talk about what interests them, what worries them, what makes them reflect and what surprises them. It is their shared glaze what Comença amb una foto (“starts from a photo”), but that gaze is born from several points of view: the one of an immigrant child who searching of a better life who will soon become an emancipated adult who while documenting the day-to-day life of a partner documents his own story; the point of view of those who are in charge of doing a documented portrait exercise and are surprised by reflecting on the connection/disconnection of people and their mobile phones; the one who senses the importance of a look, of the eyes that look at us without seeing or of the eyes that we see without looking at us; the point of view of who is astonished before the circus and its backstage, of the circus as a way of life, of the circus as an integration tool; the critical look at the beautiful photos posted on the social networks that offer beauty in cut or out of focus images, is the beauty of what is not standard/aesthetic canon; one’s review of urban art, its bravery and the boldness of graffiti artists; searching and showing the possibilities of who knows the spectator of a sport/show that can only be accessed in a virtual community from a screen; illuminate images of those who seek and find beauty in the smallest gestures and details that surround them. All these points of view translate into proposals for gazes. The Valientes propose to share their gaze with the viewer, they get close to her/him, from new angles and approaches, speaking in photographic terms, documenting and telling who they are and demoting social stereotypes about the youth group of under guardianship. Valientes PhotOn was designed from the perspective of social impact, one of its intentions is to make society think about a group, that in the Valencian Community reaches the number of 1100 young people, who know that the celebration of their legal age involves very important changes beyond those of any young person, they are forced to enter adulthood by legal mandate. In addition to offering a reference for creative work and reflection to assist in the preparation of this moment, share experiences of those who have already entered the new stage and those who are approaching it.
The Valientes PhotOn’s project is the result of the sum of several factors and participants: Documenta Photo is the one who provides the photographic content, Adonar provides the technical rigor of social intervention and the hand-to-hand work with the social entities of which the young people come from. The activities of Valientes PhotOn will begin in February 2019, approximately 25 sessions that have been developed at the Octubre Centre, d'Art Bombas Gens Centre , EASD of Valencia, La Nau of the Universitat, Rector Peset Hall of Residence, Las Naves, Cultural Centre La Beneficiencia, PhotOn Festival, Youth Municipal Centre of Russafa, Cultural Centre of El Carme, Cul de Sac and Benimaclet “conFusión” Urban Festival. The social entities that have collaborated with this project are: CAM Torrent Diagrama, Casa Don Bosco, CAM La Salle Amigó, Hogar Francisco de Asís Fundación Amigó, CAM Andorines del Puig, Piso de Emancipación Magone. The professionals who have offered these activities are Las Fotolateras, Eva Mañez, Hanna Jarzavek, Olmo Calvo, Jorge Alamar, Fernanda Gallardo and Roberto Villalón attending the call of Tania Castro who with the PhotOn Festival and Documenta Photo shapes and designs the itinerary of activities and workshops accompanied by the team of ADONAR (Tamara Montaña, Cristina López and Xochitl de León), from the social intervention and the framework designed and proposed in this project by Patricia Blanco.
Tot Comença amb una foto is an exhibition and is a map, it includes a wider perspective than the only room where the photos will be found and where the public will be. This collective graphic discourse carries in itself a guide to the situation, we are here and we present this collective work, you enter and observe what we show you, this is our dialogue. The Valientes invite us with their work to see that, in addition to the photographer who presents his/her project; there is a young man who is forced to emancipate himself when he is only 18 years old, a teenager who observes you or a girl who wonders if you look at her and how. The world map outside of those photos of which they will soon be citizens and in which the rules of the game change from one day to another.
