María Primo exhibits her work El Libro de Arena (The Book of Sand) at the Faro de Cabo Mayor Art Center.
Santander 23-09-22. The Art Center Faro de Cabo Mayor (CAFCM), under the Port Authority of Santander (APS), will host from today until December 30, the exhibition "The Book of Sand" by the artist Maria Primo from Jerez. An exhibition, coordinated and designed in collaboration with Carmen Quijano, which is part of the program being developed by the APS on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the creation of the port.
This exhibition tells the story of the great moving dune of Valdevaqueros in the Strait of Gibraltar, as a metaphor for the absurd human determination to dominate nature, while remaining separated from it. It presents a multifaceted approach that explores the social, environmental and political history that led to the formation of the dune, relating it to philosophical questions. It is a local story that takes place in Punta Paloma (Tarifa, Cadiz) - a paradisiacal enclave in the Strait of Gibraltar, just 14km from Africa - where the dune originates as a result of the military intervention in 1939 at the end of the Spanish Civil War. This operation radically changed the physiognomy of the area, generating, in the long run, environmental and social consequences that have yet to be resolved.
As the artist explained, the idea arose from her "personal experience" when she explored a "paradisiacal" place where she "took refuge" during her vacations and realized that "they were landscapes with different layers" that photography allowed her to remove. An environment in which to make "different readings" and wonder "what are the ruined bunkers, the dead pines, the broken cables and what happens to those remains that the sand swallows", as well as the road, "every time the Levante blows". Primo has also assured that this exhibition shows how the excavators work "day and night" to move the sand from one side of the road to the other "in a sterile struggle" that reminds him of "the myth of Sisyphus and the absurdity of the human condition".
With this idea of "how human intervention radically changes the physiognomy of a territory, leaving environmental and social problems to be solved in the long run", the artist gathers in the photobook THE BOOK OF SAND, an experience turned into an exhibition on the wall, a local story, documentary and fiction, of a large mobile dune, "as a metaphor of the absurd human determination to dominate nature".
María Primo has also asserted that it is a "multidisciplinary exhibition", in which "I am excited to be able to put in dialogue two geographically opposed landscapes, the Bay of Santander and the Strait of Gibraltar".
For his part, the president of the APS, Francisco Martin stressed that this is an exhibition "expressively very powerful" that speaks of the interaction of humans with nature "to lose against it on most occasions". Martín, who invited the people of Santander and visitors to enjoy this work "in an incomparable setting such as the Cabo Mayor lighthouse", also pointed out that the life of this dune is similar to that of the beach of El Puntal "which has passed its period of maturity and, little by little, is disappearing".
*María Primo (Jerez de la Frontera, 1971) obtained a master's degree in anthropology and the environment at ILAS (University of London) while taking specialized courses in creative processes and photography, from analog to digital techniques. He has worked at schools such as EFTI in his beginnings and more recently at BLANKPAPER where he completed a master's degree in production, editing and distribution of photobooks. She currently has a line of research on Art, Photography and Ecology and sustainable practices.
From 1998 to 2001, she worked in Ecuador as a coordinator for UNESCO's environmental programs, while developing her first artistic photography work with a project on consumption and garbage.
In 2002, she turned her career around and made photography her profession, since then she lives and works in Madrid combining her personal work with commissioned work, teaching and motherhood.
Specializing in interior, architecture and landscape photography, portraits and travel, she has collaborated in multiple projects with institutions, companies, architecture and decoration studios, and international publishers.
With her personal work she questions the diverse and changing relationship of human beings with their natural environment, the memory in the landscape and its multiple readings. He has exhibited his work at PhotoEspaña, ARCO, Fotobok Festival Oslo and the Cervantes Institute in Madrid, among others.
In 2018 he received the second prize of the ENAIRE Foundation photography awards. In 2020 he published the photobook EL LIBRO DE ARENA which was a finalist in the list of the best photography books of PHOTOESPAÑA 2021.
He is currently exhibiting THE BOOK OF SAND at the Centro de Arte Faro Cabo Mayor in Santander.
The exhibition, which is organized by the APS and will remain at the Cabo Mayor Lighthouse Art Center until next December 30, is free admission.
Opening hours:
Tuesday: 11.00 a.m. - 2.00 p.m.
Wednesday to Saturday: 11.00 a.m. - 2.00 p.m. / 6.00 p.m. - 9.00 p.m.
Sunday: 11.00 a.m. - 2.00 p.m.
Monday closed