Joan Fontcuberta

El jardí dels dragons. ''Frotogrames'' series

Date: 1990

Technique: Collage of negatives with chemical colour toning

Dimensions: 118 x 110 cm

Es Baluard Museu d'Art Contemporani de Palma

Reg. no.: 654

Not on display

El jardí dels dragons (1990) belongs to the series “Frotogrames”, a term coined by the artist. The technique is derived from the term frottage which makes a certain reference to the technique used by Max Ernst, although for a different purpose. The “frotogram” is based on placing the negative of the photo in direct frottage with the object represented, as though it were an engraving matrix, obtaining the physical print of the physical element on the final image in the form of scratches, giving it a mysterious, aged appearance.

Joan Fontcuberta is a photographer who for a long time found his subjects in nature. Fears and anxiety take on the appearance of animals and plants, turning nature into a form of projection of the inner world. El jardí dels dragons (The garden of the dragons), shows the fragility of the boundaries between reality and fiction, a constant theme in his work and the consequence of the concern he shows for the fictitious component that exists in things real. The reality-fiction dichotomy, the fact that photography is itself not real, but depends on the gaze of the photographer, guides his research work. The photo El jardí dels dragons is accompanied by a soundtrack, a recording made using high-sensitivity equipment and increasing the sound at the moment when the frottage takes place, lending another dimension to this work. This record was made by Das Sythetische Mischgewebe.

E.B.

Artist biography