Kenosis

Kénosis, the 14th edition of Fotonoviembre, the International Photography Festival of Tenerife, directed by Gilberto González, will be held from November 9, 2017 to February 27, 2018. The International Photography Festival of Tenerife is organized by Cabildo Insular de Tenerife, the island council, under the aegis of Centro de Fotografía Isla de Tenerife, TEA - Tenerife Espacio de las Artes.

Against a backdrop of an ever-increasing glut of images whose qualitative properties are progressively being replaced by quantitative ones, it is pressing to undertake an analysis of the anthropological and cultural structures on which it is sustained. With this goal in mind, the Biennial takes its title from the word kenosis, etymologically derived from the Greek κενό, but based on the use Jacques Derrida made of it. The philosopher used the term to speak about the archive and photography as cenotaphs of something that has happened and that no longer exists. Inasmuch as the preservation of something lost, the image is presented through an act of emptying that can divest itself of the very apparatus on which it is sustained. The proposal of Kenosis within Fotonoviembre 2017 is based on three images: the first is the USS Maine Sinking in Havana Harbour (1898); the second shows the poet Domingo López Torres beside André Breton, Jacqueline Lamba and Benjamin Péret during their visit to the Canary Islands in 1935 and the third is a still of Conical intersect (1975) by Gordon Matta-Clark. The represented and its contrary are contained in all three, so much so that the historical narrative that follows the images actually erases what they wished to signify. If the images are cenotaphs, following Derrida’s idea, then we are forced to ask ourselves questions like: what exactly is the corpse? What remains in the image? How do narratives resist the emptying of the image? To make up for their emptiness, the spectator must continuously resignify what he or she sees.

This is the basic premise to Kenosis, the title of the official section of Fotonoviembre 2017, in which the guest artists and the curatorial team endeavour to outline a plan of superimposed layers made up of various exhibitions, through which one can gain access to a coherent collective narrative. The curatorial team comprises Sigal Barnir, Lola Barrena, Néstor Delgado, Gilberto González, Mayte Henríquez, Charlotte Huddleston, Michy Marxuach and Fernando Pérez. The exhibitions are held in TEA, Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Colegio de Arquitectos de Canarias, Sala de Arte Contemporáneo and Instituto Cabrera Pinto.

Artists: Pérez y Requena / Adrian Alemán / Fiona Amundsen / Michal Baror / Teresa Arozena  / Carolina Caycedo / Raimond Chavés & Gilda Mantilla / Celine Condorelli  / Tony Cruz / Equipo Neura  / Harum Farocki / Alia Farid  / Luca Frei / Sofía Gallisá  / Cristina Garrido / Agata Gómez / Jorge González / Ohad Hadad & Hilal Jabareen  / Werner Herzog / Dieneke Jansen / Pablo León De La Barra / Teresa Margolles / Gordon Matta-Clark / Silvia Navarro / Efraín Pintos / Diego del Pozo / Zilia Sánchez / Beatriz Santiago / Ricardo Trigo / Wallid Raad / Mar Reykjakiv / Antonio R. Montesinos / Natalie Robertson / Juan José Valencia & Lena Peñate / Ammar Younis

Authors in selection: Diego Ballestrasse / Susan Dobson / Aurelia Frey / Pablo Guerra / Laura San Segundo

Colección Ordóñez-Falcón de Fotografía: Berenice Abbot / Han Bellmer / Sophie Calle / Walker Evans / Tacita Dean / Bernd & Hilla Becher / Evelyn Hofer / Candida Hoffer / Michael Kena / Ana Mendieta / Barbara Morgan / Vik Muniz  / Irving Penn / Richard Prince / Gerhard Richter / Allan Sekula / Cindy Sherman  / Lorna Simpson / Alfred Stieglitz

Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Collection

Centro de Fotografía Isla de Tenerife Collection: Teresa Arozena / Carma Casulá / Poldo Cebrián / Mataparda / Frank Kalero / Enrique Sánchez / Francesc Catalá-Roca