13

Almería, 2010

Paulo Nozolino (b. 1955)


Estimate

8.000 - 10.000


Session

4 February 2016



Description

Gelatin silver print mounted on aluminium
Ed.: 1/3

120x80 cm


Category

Modern and Contemporary Art


Additional Information

Paulo Nozolino is one of the most important Portuguese photographers.
His saturated images in black and white and a very strong grain are also
easily recognizable by their motifs: a tireless voyager and collector of
fragments of ruins, Nozolino has travelled around the globe — from the
Arab world to horror places such as Auschwitz and Sarajevo. Regardless
of his feeling of injustice, his work is distinguished from the pretentious
denouncements of photojournalism. Although revelation of ‘decadence
and spall [of] the world’ is at the centre of Nozolino’s practice, he does
not believe that his images can change reality.
The title of this photograph evokes a geographical zone known as
having been the stage for the Spaghetti Western films by director Sergio
Leone. This area of Southern Spain is also infamous for the forced
labour imposed on emigrants from North Africa and for xenophobic
attitudes towards ethnical minorities such as the gypsies. According to
Nozolino, the cave seen in this photograph was the home of gypsies
when Andalusia was seized by an ethnic cleaning. This image reminds
us of the story of caves, that besides being a hideout for persecuted
Christians, have also been a space of refuge for outcasts, the poor, the
forgotten and the incurable.
Out of Nozolino’s recent solo exhibitions we can name: ‘Bloom’, Palais
de Luppé, Rencontres d’Arles, France (2013); ‘Usura’, BES Arte & Finança,
Lisbon (2012); ‘Bone lonely / Far Cry’, Atelier des Forges, Rencontres
d’Arles, France (2009); and ‘Far Cry’, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de
Serralves, Porto (2005).



Closed Auction