Mensurable
14 May – 19 September 2010
C/ Doctor Artero s/n
22004 Huesca
Spain
info [at] cdan.es
MENSURABLE (MEASURABLE)
Mensurable focuses on the ability of images (mainly photographic, but also film, video, and even spectrographic images) to analyse and explore reality in a wide range of scientific aspects related to nature. The understanding of nature that underlies the exhibition is both broad and precise, encompassing the cosmos, geology, volcanology, and the human body from the skin out, as well as its internal workings. Images are presented as a means of exploring, measuring and understanding processes that reveal the natural world and its evolution. Though not originally created as works of art or generally regarded as such, these images possess an undeniable beauty. Most are descriptive and functional, and they figure prominently in the iconography of our times.
The image of the Earth provided by a satellite for climate predictions, a camera that monitors a volcano in Antarctica, pioneering photographs used to measure the human body (taken in 1853), the first botanical compilation in history, in beautiful blue prints, the landscapes of Mars taken by a device on the planet’s surface — Measurable traces a historical arc from the first years of photography to the present day and examines the relationship between images and our knowledge of nature, understood in the broad and precise sense mentioned above. These images contribute to scientific knowledge, exploration, and dissemination, as well as allowing us to explore nature.
The exhibition spans almost two centuries, bringing together both pioneering works and contemporary images, created by well-known figures and anonymous individuals (and in some cases even by machines). The origins of the works featured are diverse, with images from numerous European and North American collections, as well as sources that can be accessed online. The association between beauty and utility and the link between knowledge and beauty are central to the show.
Pablo Llorca
Curator
Dates: from 14 May to 19 September 2010
Catalogue:
The catalogue, in English and Spanish, is published by CDAN.
OPENING HOURS
Mornings: 11 am to 2 pm; afternoons 5 pm to 9 pm
Sundays and public holidays: 10 am to 2 pm; afternoons 5 pm to 9 pm
Mondays (except public holidays): closed
Free guided tours
Saturdays at 12 noon and 6pm
Sundays and public holidays at 12 noon
Free admission
Group visits by arrangement
Information – Press office
E-mail: difusion [at] cdan.es
Image above: Cloud Forms, Clova, Ripon, 5th-9th March 1893
Charles Piazzi Smyth
Royal Observatory of Edinburgh
