Dionisio González
Press Release
DIONISIO GONZÁLEZ FAVELAS February 23 – April 7, 2012
Galerie Richard is pleased to announce the New York debut of Spanish artist Dionisio González. Simultaneously embodying the roles of utopian/dystopian architect and documentary photographer, González constructs spatially and socially complex worlds that challenge the established history of photography and architecture.
In this exhibition, Galerie Richard presents Favelas, González’s first series conceptualized between 2004 and 2007. Bringing him international recognition and acclaim, Favelas (the Brazilian word for shantytowns) became a seminal body of work for González in which he began his renowned process of juxtaposing the construction and deconstruction of photographic space. This body of work marks a critical transition in this artist’s career as he exhibits in New York for the first time.
The subject of favelas in itself is a strong artistic statement for a photographer. The substantial fiscal struggles of Brazilian shantytowns epitomize documentary photography with ethnologic, socio-political, architectural, and voyeuristic content. At first glance, the photographs appear to be objective depictions of urban locations. However, González manages to illustrate the reality of life in favelas while also highlighting their physical construction. Every composition is the same: a frontal view of a street or a group of houses. It respects the aesthetics of numerous photographers like Ed Ruscha, Bernd and Hilla Becher, just to name a few. Within the images one cannot help but see aspects of the construction that resemble contemporary architectural styles of the last two decades, creating an exciting and yet jarring discourse between photograph and viewer.
Galerie Richard will present nine large format C-prints from Favelas containing scenes of architectural hybridity in which sleek Modernist forms project from the shantytowns of Brazil, illuminating the intersection of social structures. González reclaims the favela, and transforms it into a destination. The works allude to global architecture, or the aftermath of gentrification, without forcing a definitive conclusion.
González digitally interweaves imaginitive elements of modern and contemporary architectures within the structural patchwork of the shantytown, collapsing real and fictive imagery. The photographs are heavily processed accumulations of time and information, condensed seamlessly within a single moment. As a post-digital artist, Dionisio González exploits photography and challenges the medium’s preconceived neutral and objective guidelines. At the same time he challenges himself as being as much a photographer than a virtual architect. In recent years, some young Brazilian architects started inserting contemporary architectures into the favelas in ways similar to that of Dionisio’s.
González’s work has been exhibited at the The Venice Architecture Bienniale, The Heidelberger Kunstverein, the Landesmuseum Joanneum de Graz, and Hanoi's Museum of the Revolution, bringing him renowned international recognition. His work is part of major international private and institutional collections-- including the Rubell Collection, the Borusan Collection, the Williams College Museum of Art, Massachusetts, and the Coca Cola Foundation.