The story behind the show: artists and projects

The 2009 edition of Talent Latent presents fourteen pieces which have been selected from over more than 200 projects put forward by approximately one hundred sources. Of these fourteen pieces, twelve are photographs, one a video and another a multimedia presentation.

The standard of the projects presented has been very high and it has not been easy to finalise the selection and leave out certain pieces. We have tried to choose those which, apart from their more formal value, reflect the areas of interest of these new talents.

One of the recurring themes of these works is that of generational reflection, mixed with questions of identity and the feeling of belonging to determined social groups. Emigration and the defence of a cultural identity, the difficulty of integration and the dream of returning to a place of origin is also another thread, as is also the influence of illness or the theme of work. These are the very things that mark patterns of different behaviours and determine personal existence.

Another theme that we see repeated is that of reflection on the urban landscape, its influence on daily life, the isolation of people, and the fragility of objects which we may find while strolling through the streets. The photographer shows us these as fragmented, torn out of their environment.

Finally, different artists question the relationship of humans with nature, in an age in which the environment and its preservation hold a privileged space.

From a more theoretical point of view, some of the projects reflect on representation via the photographic image and also on the construction of the moving image. Photographic reportage is a tool that many artists use in order to better understand certain social realities, the influence of politics or economics, or simply to avoid the oblivion of indifference.

The fourteen projects selected strive to be representative of all these different lines of thought.

Cristina Zelich
Commissioner