José Quintanilla - #04 Memorabilia [The Invented Memory]

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Title: #04 #Memorabilia [The Invented Memory].

Series: MEMORABILIA, The Invented Memory.

"The past doesn't exist. Only its infinite representations exist."

Ryszard Kapuscinski.

False ruin as a metaphor for constructing narratives based on a supposedly true event. Questioning reality.

Author: José Quintanilla.

Technical Sheet:
Black and white film, Mamiya 6x7 medium format.
Pigmented ink print on metallic baryta Hahnemühle cotton paper. Author's copy.
Framed in a display case, mansonia molding, anti-reflective museum glass.

Year: 2019-2023.

Editing, Production and Measurements:
Limited, Serialized and Numbered Edition, signed and numbered by hand by the artist, Certificate of Authorship.
8 + 2 PA Edition

Measurements and Edition:

Limited Edition [2] Printed image of 60 x 48 cm. Framed: 62 x 50 x 4 cm.

Limited Edition [3] Printed image of 80 x 100 cm. Framed: 83 x 103 x 4 cm.

Limited Edition [3] Printed Image 122 x 160 cm. Framed: 125 x 163 x 6 cm.

Collections & Awards:
Musee Georges Pompidou, Malaga.
PHotoEspaña receives a special mention at the 2021 Enaire Foundation Awards
Exhibition at the Faro de Cabo Mayor Art Center in Santander
within the programming of the PHotoEspaña Festival 2021.

MEMORABILIA, The Invented Memory.

“If you don’t like the past, change it.” William L. Burton.

Among monumental representations, the ruin will become the key to our collective memory, the gateway to the dream world that, as Marc Augé said, places us in a "pure time, without date, but with memory." Ruins reaffirm the roots of our past and establish our heroic references, and when these don't exist, we invent them.

In this work, Jose Quintanilla discusses the false ruin—also known as folly or caprice—which became fashionable in the landscaped gardens of the wealthy European classes beginning in the 18th century. As generators of memory on demand, they recreate the Western vision of history, clinging to a heroic past that feels threatened by the arrival of the Industrial Revolution and modernity, while calming consciences troubled by increasing environmental degradation, the overexploitation of natural resources, the ruthless use of children and slaves, and the appropriation of other people's wealth in colonized territories.

The MEMORABILIA project, which received the PhotoEspaña Special Mention at the ENAIRE Photography Awards in 2021 and was exhibited that same year in Santander as part of the festival, is the first time it has been presented as a solo exhibition in Madrid, after having been shown at art fairs and in such iconic venues as the Pompidou Centre in Malaga. The artist has also prepared several exclusive works for this exhibition at the gallery.

Quintanilla invites us to reflect on how history and our collective memory are constructed through beautiful images that draw directly from Romantic aesthetics, a work he has been working on in recent years. A very timely reflection in the current uncertain political and environmental situation.