eyephoneography Madrid. What happened.
Earlier this year in September, Madrid, Spain hosted its first iPhone photography exhibition, eyephoneography #1, at an artist’s collective called The Hub-Madrid. The show was unexpectedly suspended after the photographs were taken down, damaged or destroyed. The show was vandalized.
Few details were released while this was under investigation. Marco La Civita, one of the artists featured in the show and who has close ties to the organizers of eyephoneography, has broken the silence and released a little bit of information about the events of last September. It’s a short read, but it’s an insight into some of the political gamesmanship that occurs in the art world.
Max Oliva, the director of the Hub Madrid, the 21st of last September decided to take down the show without giving any notice to the organizer. The person who physically took down the show did it with no respect whatsoever for the images and ruined them all. 48 images from me, Greg Schmigel, MissPixels, and Sion Fullana treated like trash. It was called a barbaric act, a raptus of madness, a vandalic act.
Click here to read Marco’s full post, “Max Oliva: creative stupidity at the Hub Madrid” on iPhoneblogography.com.
While I appreciate the additional information about the Madrid event, I disagree with Marco’s assertion that Max’s thoughtless and probably criminal acts were an act of creative stupidity. Stupid? Yes. Creative? No.
As the director of a creative co-op, Max Oliva has a duty to, at the very least, respect and protect the works of other artists and exhibits under his tutelage. His actions were akin to the Catering Director of The Prado carelessly removing and destroying classic works by Velásquez because a wedding reception booked down the hall didn’t like old paintings.
I’m glad that as part of the settlement reached the iPhoneographers were paid for their work. Unfortunately, it’s a settlement and not a true sale of the piece. These prints will not hang as part of an afficionado’s collection.
This also raises another disturbing issue. The Hub-Madrid is supposed to be a collective of artists, but it appears that the director of the collective doesn’t always have the artist’s best interests in mind.
</rant>
=M=
~~~~
Marty is a self-employed graphic designer in the Fort Worth/Dallas Metroplex. He is an avid Rangers baseball, Chicago Cubs, Packers and Highbury Arsenal fan. In addition to capturing random moments with whatever camera is close by (usually his iPhone), his other interests include coffee, film, music, and traveling in seats 5E and 5F with his fiancé.
6 Comments »
Leave a comment!
I am putting on an iphoneography exhibit in dc, called instantDC coming up from November 18th – 21st with 10 iphoneographers showcased & I can't imagine something like that happening to the works that we are spending a lot of time to frame, mat and hang for display. That level of lack of respect shown by the events that occurred at Hub Madrid is astounding.
Marty, thanks for the post. I agree 100% with what you wrote. Maybe it didn't come through in my post as I wished, but of course I was being ironic … and that is why I created the oxymoron "creative stupidity". They are two words that of course don't go well together. And only one is appropriate to describe what happened. You pointed out the correct one
.
Thanks for the update Marty, and Marco, thanks for the post. This disrespect shown to the artists is extremely frustrating. You would expect much better by an artistic director, and in general from members of the art community, regardless of how the work is seen, or valued.
Best,
N
Whilst the director of the Hub was well out of order in his actions, I think there is more to this than meets the eye, and with no public comment from the organizer, I wonder who is really at the root of the blame!!
Was this because they looked down on the shots because they were created with an iphone??
Benjamin, the fact that they were photos shot with a smartphone didn't help. The offending part actually tried to use also this argument during the negotiation, but it never actually explained why the photos were taken down with no previous communication. There is just no reason for what was done.