PRESS RELEASE
JAVIER VALLHONRAT
ACASO
opening Saturday 17th October 2009
from 3.00 pm to 8.00 pm
cocktail from 5.00 pm
from 18th October to 22nd November 2009
Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday 10.30 am – 7.30 pm
Wednesday and Thursday 10.30 am – 9.00 pm
Monday 3.30 pm – 7.30 pm
in collaboration with
Galleria Carla Sozzani
corso Como 10 – 20154 Milano, Italia
tel. +39 02.653531 fax +39 02.29004080
www.galleriacarlasozzani.org
JAVIER VALLHONRAT
ACASO
Born in Madrid in 1953, Javier Vallhonrat starts as photographer in the early ’80, collaborating with some of the most important fashion magazines and producing photo-works which have influenced a whole generation.
In the ’90 he left the fashion field to concentrate more on his own photography projects and to direct advertising films, starting to think of the concept of space and its representation.
Acaso documents a four-year project made in this direction and the intellectual strength that Vallhonrat applies to this work may come as a surprise to those are more familiar with the fashion stories that he made for Vogue.
In this series the photographer explores how men need to convert space into home, trying to give a sense to an unyielding terrain and to make an abstract space for his own.
The images are loaded with metaphors that invite visitors to consider the multiple meanings of the idea of place, a privileged space for memory and experience, where individual identity and sense of belonging are embodied.
The Acaso series cannot be subsumed to any definite category or genre: all the photographs can be documents of some mysterious experiment, giving a sense of alienation to the spectator. Although the pictures show action, time seems to stand still.
Each pictures can be viewed separately and forms an entity in itself but, at the same time, there is a bond between the individual images that goes beyond formal characteristics.
Vallhonrat uses a very refined technique that links the images to cinema for the format, reminding of film stills, and to painting for the accurate compositions, the use of lights and shadows and the frozen movements.
JAVIER VALLHONRATBIOGRAPHY
1953 Born in Madrid
1972 Studies painting at the Fine Arts Faculty of Madrid
1973 Works as a photographer's assistant
1982 Begins his first series of personal photographs and conducts photographic workshops
1982 Works for Italian Vogue , British Vogue, New York Times and other publications, and for several fashion designers such as Comme des Garçons, Christian Lacroix, Sybilla, Jil Sander, Martine Sitbon, John Galliano
1986 Is awarded with a degree in Fine Arts, Fine Arts Faculty of Madrid
1992 Commercial works for Yves Saint-Laurent, Chloe, Lancôme, Shiseido, and advertising films
1997 Teaches photography at the Fine Arts Faculty of Cuenca.