García de Marina. Achronia 12+ Automatic translate

Erarta Museum presents an exhibition of the Spanish surrealist photographer García de Marina, whose work defies the viewer’s imagination

• Alternative reading of familiar objects, be it a pencil, a watch or a gas mask
• Minimalistic shots with a deep philosophical message
• Visual poetry based on the play of meanings

In 2010, García de Marina bought a camera - and a passion for photography took possession of him. He conceived his first conceptual photograph when he saw his wife preparing dinner: a broken egg prompted Garcia to add chicken tracks next to it. From that moment on, the surrounding objects play the main roles in the artist’s works: he skillfully manipulates them, placing more familiar things in a new context, be it a pencil, a watch or a gas mask.

The minimalistic and pure art of the author is akin to the naive, childish perception of the material world: a child’s imagination can turn a fork into a comb, and a tin can into a pirate ship. The main generator of meanings in the work of García de Marina is imagination, curiosity and observation. The artist invites the viewer to see the new in the already known - he himself is incredibly fascinated by this game, and he invites us to join it.

It is no coincidence that de Marina’s works do not have titles: it is important for him not to limit the viewer’s perception with his own eyes. It interacts with the object as if it were an onion: layer by layer, it clears it of obvious readings, freeing the information field of the object for new interpretations. Alternative contexts become a way for the photographer to change history, to create an alternative reality full of visual poetry - achrony.

About the author:

García de Marina was born in 1975 in Gijon (Spain). In 2010, a change took place in his life: Garcia bought a camera - and a passion for photography captured him. Less than a year later, the author began to share the results of his work on social networks and participate in his first exhibitions. In 2015, the Spanish Embassy invited de Marina to represent the country in the FotoWeek DC competition.

In recent years, the author has taken part in dozens of photo festivals both at home and abroad, including the Xposure International Photography Festival (UAE), Addis Foto Fest (Ethiopia), Photo Romania Festival (Romania), Budapest Photo Festival (Hungary), Uppsala Fotofestival (Sweden). His projects were demonstrated at the Cervantes Institute in Belgrade (Serbia), at the Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura (Gijon, Spain) cultural center, and at the Cervantes Institute in Budapest (Hungary). In 2021, the Spanish public postal service Sociedad Estatal Correos y Telégrafos, SA put into circulation 162,000 stamps, created on the basis of a photograph of García de Marina.