RH / WORKS / SCORES / EDITIONS

LATENT VIEWS IN THE CITY OF MADRID 2011/2021
Photobook. 178 pages, 15x20 cm.
Jabbah ED, 2021

The project Latent Views is composed of different series of photographs which show what a selection of commemorative monuments “look at”. From the study of statues and sculptural groups representing illustrious, imaginary, and allegorical personalities, a photographic record is carried out that uncovers a new form of knowledge of urban space. The photographic record defines itself through the point of view of each statue. Subsequently, for the project´s exhibitions and photobooks, multiple interlinked relationships are established between the images according to the themes of the monuments, their geographical situations, the directions of each view and the places photographed. A game that multiplies perspectives, it brings together reality and fiction, concrete and abstract, scene and scenarios, connecting the space of the book/exhibition with that of the city. Directing the work towards the contexts of each monument’s location, a displacement is proposed from the statues’ point of view towards that which is in permanent transformation. A transformation that takes place in a very specific way, at an instantaneous level, so that the work is not concluded as it continues to live on. What is photographed is conceived as a backdrop of absent personalities (the monuments) that predisposes our vital and emancipatory behaviors as actors; at the same time, it must activate our passive role as spectators in any aesthetic, urban and social situation. This project contributes to the paradigmatic shift in the way of understanding the functions of monuments, urban space, and the photographic act from contemporary artistic practice.

2025 / info@raulhidalgo.net / IG