But still, life
Solo show by Cristina Stolhe
But still, life
Solo show by Cristina Stolhe
10 September - 14 October 2022
Credits
Elena Feduchi
El Chico presents Cristina Stolhe’s (Pontevedra, 1993) first solo exhibition, But still, life.
For over a year and a half, el Chico has been reviewing the practices of emerging artists in Spain in order to understand what is culturally happening in our rare and convulsive times. For various reasons, we have dedicated a large part of our program to painting. In the quest for a broader understanding, we present our first photography exhibition. This exhibition confronts us with several conundrums – to which we are already accustomed and well suited– that we will try to solve or expand during the course of this exhibition. The first question, and perhaps the most obvious one, is what is photography, as an artistic practice, today? What are its objectives and, above all, what does it contribute to a hyper-communicated ecosystem?
To face this exhibition’s task, we must use the tools provided by the previous ones. It seems clear to us that Cristina’s generation is approaching its reality more directly than the generations immediately preceding; her generation does not have the advantage of a nostalgia of the past nor the yoke of an unforgiving future. This condition may well be seen as bleak, but we should set aside our value judgments in order to enter as freely as possible into the processes that these artists have set in motion. Through the practices of contemporary artists and more precisely, from the emerging artists that have inhabited this space, we have learned that information and its dizzying proliferation is a symbol and creative artefact. Why paint if we have photography?
Painting is a translation of reality, photography is a manipulation of reality; this is where we find the core, the difficulties and, broadly speaking, the reason for both practices. When we speak of manipulation we are not doing it pejoratively, but in a technical sense, and at the same time, we do not view the technical as formal perfection, but rather as a bare process of representing for others what we see for ourselves, in this case, the photographer. This technical representation (we’ll treat it as a term) is more difficult today than it was in the pre-digital, pre-internet era. When a process becomes challenging again is exactly when we need to rethink the necessity of doing it. To make photography after the advent of Instagram. Is it necessary today to have an exhibition of photographs that depict the reality of a single person? Yes, it sure is when those photographs —those technical representations— of an individual reality resonate with the collective. We realise that for the most part, it is easier to understand the mysticism of painting through formal, dialectical, and even chromatic issues; however, from our perspective, the mysticism of photography is more reticent to reveal itself at the first attempt. In our experience, the feeling and realisation of being part of a whole through a photographic practice has happened only on two occasions, Cristina’s work being one of them, and we believe that that ethereal mysticism is lying there, in that feeling.
In a strictly objective way, photography is perhaps the most prolific medium of our times, but beyond that objectivity, what we have found in Stolhe’s work is the ability to go back to the importance of the individual as part of the whole. Probably and with fair reason, this identification will happen more immediately among spectators of her generation or those closest to it, and it’s also this that drives us to hold this exhibition. Talking about Cristina’s work is both easy and complex: easy because her work is brutally direct, complex because even after comprehending her practice, we don’t feel able to categorise her as a mere photographer. Once again, we feel very comfortable comparing art with witchcraft, Cristina – dare we say – is the one who conjures through her photographs that invisible mysticism which, like a mirror, reminds us that even as individuals we will always be part of the same life common to all. Different objects, but still, life.
For over a year and a half, el Chico has been reviewing the practices of emerging artists in Spain in order to understand what is culturally happening in our rare and convulsive times. For various reasons, we have dedicated a large part of our program to painting. In the quest for a broader understanding, we present our first photography exhibition. This exhibition confronts us with several conundrums – to which we are already accustomed and well suited– that we will try to solve or expand during the course of this exhibition. The first question, and perhaps the most obvious one, is what is photography, as an artistic practice, today? What are its objectives and, above all, what does it contribute to a hyper-communicated ecosystem?
To face this exhibition’s task, we must use the tools provided by the previous ones. It seems clear to us that Cristina’s generation is approaching its reality more directly than the generations immediately preceding; her generation does not have the advantage of a nostalgia of the past nor the yoke of an unforgiving future. This condition may well be seen as bleak, but we should set aside our value judgments in order to enter as freely as possible into the processes that these artists have set in motion. Through the practices of contemporary artists and more precisely, from the emerging artists that have inhabited this space, we have learned that information and its dizzying proliferation is a symbol and creative artefact. Why paint if we have photography?
Painting is a translation of reality, photography is a manipulation of reality; this is where we find the core, the difficulties and, broadly speaking, the reason for both practices. When we speak of manipulation we are not doing it pejoratively, but in a technical sense, and at the same time, we do not view the technical as formal perfection, but rather as a bare process of representing for others what we see for ourselves, in this case, the photographer. This technical representation (we’ll treat it as a term) is more difficult today than it was in the pre-digital, pre-internet era. When a process becomes challenging again is exactly when we need to rethink the necessity of doing it. To make photography after the advent of Instagram. Is it necessary today to have an exhibition of photographs that depict the reality of a single person? Yes, it sure is when those photographs —those technical representations— of an individual reality resonate with the collective. We realise that for the most part, it is easier to understand the mysticism of painting through formal, dialectical, and even chromatic issues; however, from our perspective, the mysticism of photography is more reticent to reveal itself at the first attempt. In our experience, the feeling and realisation of being part of a whole through a photographic practice has happened only on two occasions, Cristina’s work being one of them, and we believe that that ethereal mysticism is lying there, in that feeling.
In a strictly objective way, photography is perhaps the most prolific medium of our times, but beyond that objectivity, what we have found in Stolhe’s work is the ability to go back to the importance of the individual as part of the whole. Probably and with fair reason, this identification will happen more immediately among spectators of her generation or those closest to it, and it’s also this that drives us to hold this exhibition. Talking about Cristina’s work is both easy and complex: easy because her work is brutally direct, complex because even after comprehending her practice, we don’t feel able to categorise her as a mere photographer. Once again, we feel very comfortable comparing art with witchcraft, Cristina – dare we say – is the one who conjures through her photographs that invisible mysticism which, like a mirror, reminds us that even as individuals we will always be part of the same life common to all. Different objects, but still, life.
