Press Release:
MEXICO, D F, February 18, 2009 - Delirios de la Razón, by David LaChapelle, is the exhibition that is currently presented at the Old School of San Ildefonso in the Historic Center of our city.
The curatorship was in charge of Fred Torres , who selected 64 large-format works made between 1995 and 2008.
LaChapelle, considered one of the most recognized contemporary contemporary photographers in the United States, has an original and powerful language to talk about the contemporary world within the surrealist current.
Remember the words of the photographers Richard Avedon: "Of all the photographers who invent surrealist images, LaChapelle is the one who has the potential to be the Magritte of his genre."
The sample is divided into six themes; The viewer will be able to see from his work made by order, in the world of advertising, as well as those of his free creation, in addition to two videos, which bring the visitor to know the processes that the artist goes through to produce his images of a strong visual load, built from different intentions: advertising, religion, society, sex, etc.
Besides the undoubted technical quality, there is a conceptual vitality, to understand and criticize the contradictions of the contemporary world, especially the United States. It is worth mentioning that LaChapelle recognizes that his work has an affinity with Pop Art, a current that intends to look at the object in order to spread it.
Disciple of Andy Warhol, the language used by LaChapelle, to express his astonishment and his thinking achieves a poetics of his own; the stridency of its language draws attention for several reasons: color, composition and also for its theme Many of his photographic images have been worked in correlation with the history of art, especially the images that have been inspired by religious art , like: Pieta With Courtney Love, the Deluge, among others.
The construction of the images is spectacular (the visitor thanks to the videos knows all the process that involved the creation of these); some photographs have a sense of humor capable of introducing a critical opinion
The strong symbolic load of his work allows an access so that his artistic proposal invites the viewer to question the reality, through emotion, as the series of Awakened, where several characters appear submerged in water tanks Of strong poetic charge also the series Cathedral and Museum, which, in addition to allude to the breakdown of society, are enveloped in a nostalgic aura of great beauty.
The different series Heaven to hell , Cathedral and Museum, The House at The end of the World, Crash, Jesus is my homeboy -each one with its own themes- deal with spirituality, the destruction of nature, technology, urban landscapes, automobiles, religion, etc., with a vision as contemporary as apocalyptic
LaChapelle uses the same language of criticism for its own criticism, this means that the spectator can often feel trapped and seduced by what he rejects.
The Old School of San Ildefonso is located on Calle de Justo Sierra 16, Centro Histórico, and the sample will be open to the public until June 14 of this year.
For more information please visit the Antiguo Colegio De San Ildefonso website.