COURSES
HISTORIES, THEORIES AND DEBATES ON EXPERIMENTAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Photography, from its birth, is experimental because it is the result of a series of transforming discoveries. In its evolution, the industry conquered it to democratize it and make it a business, but there were always technicians, scientists, artisans and artists creating in a different way. Scientists advanced technology, artists, visual representation, and historians and philosophers have tried to explain to us what was happening in a very complex field such as this one. In the last ten years, this type of photography has experienced a boom, not only in terms of the number of artists, scientists and artisans involved but also in the philosophical conception that gives it meaning. Experimental photography has ceased to be something secondary and hidden in the archives to be Art, Science and Crafts in capital letters, to be a dignified and a valuable community research. Although much progress has been made, there is a lack of an in-depth historical vision that will lead us to know where we come from and where we are going, and a philosophical reflection that will allow us to understand the reasons why we do what we do. This course, for the first time, recovers these genealogies because we need to tell this story and understand it among all the members of our community in order to continue moving forward. For this, we will go through three levels (history, theories and debates) that have taken place in different spaces and moments and that have given meaning to what we know today as experimental photography. It will be carried out in two trimesters of seven sessions each: the first, from October to December, where we will work from the beginnings of photography to the avant-garde, and the second, between January and April, where we will see contemporary experimental photography. In each class there will be a theoretical presentation with images and then a space for discussion.
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​+ 7 Sessions live online
+ 1 Chat to share material and answer questions
+ All classes are recorded and broadcast later for those who cannot be present in some of them.
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INFORMATION
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+ Teacher: Pablo Giori
+ Dates: January 28, February 11 and 25, March 10 and 24 and April 7 and 21
+ Duration: 18 teaching hours. Two-hour live sessions, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (Spanish time), on Sundays every 15 days
+ Level: general photographic knowledge but not historiographical or theoretical
​+ Modality: live online in Zoom
+ Language: English
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​+ Price: €200
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COMPLET PROGRAM
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BLOCK 1: From the beginnings of photography to the historical avant-garde
- What do we talk about when we talk about experimental photography?
His relations with creative, alternative and historical photography. Industrial versus experimental photography. Historical moments.
- Inventors, scientists and craftsmen (1839-1919)
80 years of experimentation between France and England.
- Historical avant-gardes and photography: Dadaism, Surrealism and Man Ray (1919-1945)
Collage, photomontages, revolution and masses, from Switzerland and France to the world.
- Bauhaus, New Objectivity, Constructivism and Moholy-Nagy (1919-1939)
Germany and Russia: new societies, new ways of seeing.
- Adorno, Benjamin and the Frankfurt School (1923-1963)
The Other Germany: Marxism and Critical Theory.
- Abstraction and Conceptualism: from vorticism to subjective photography (1917-1980)
The experimental and the questioning of realism and the "truth".
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BLOCK 2: Contemporary Experimental Photography
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- Barthes, Bourdieu and Sontag: 30 years of photo debate (1965-1980)
From France and the United States, academics join the debate.
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- Vilém Flusser, Marc Lenot and Joan Fontcuberta (1983-2015)
The photograph is looked at in the mirror (of the system).
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- Is a philosophy of photography possible?
From popular theory, modernism, orthodox scepticism and the new theory.
- The instantaneous (Polaroid), the "homemade" (Lomography) and the analogical and digital debate (1960-2010)
Another photo is possible? We have come to question the industry, or not.
- Experimental meta photography, contemporary art and expanded photography (1969-2017)
From the self-awareness of the medium to the foundational books of experimental photography.
- Is experimental photography the future? 96 techniques
What do we talk about when we talk about techniques? And of the three challenges? Are there exhibitions and experimental photobooks?
- Convergent approaches to experimentation (1960-2022)
Feminism, Gender Studies, Ecologism, Post-colonialism.
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*This course may undergo content modifications according to advances in reflections, classes and the needs of students.
PROFESOR: Pablo Giori @pablo.giori
Founder and co-director of the Experimentalphotofestival Association: Experimental 2023 and Ágora, school of experimentation.
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Bachelor of Letters (Classical Philology) from the National University of Tucumán (Argentina); Master's Degree in Communication and Cultural Studies from the University of Girona (Spain) and in Strategic Communication from the University of Tarragona (Spain), both with scholarships; PhD in Contemporary History from the University of Girona with a comparative study between Spain and Canada. He speaks 4 languages. Since the beginning of the Agora, he has accompanied more than 40 artists from all over the world in the development of their projects.
He is a specialist in the management, conservation, digitization and dissemination of photographic heritage and has worked for three years in the Image Area of the National Archive of Catalonia. He has curated 21 exhibitions of different projects in various countries in Europe and Latin America. He has published three books, including the photobook Unexpected Inhabitants. 12 key ideas for making double exposures and exchanging reels (2018), the photographic biography of Pere Català i Pic. Photography, publicity, avant guard and literature (1889-1971) and all the festival catalogues of EXP.20, EXP.21 and EXP.22.
- It is possible to finance the cost of the course in instalments. Send us an email for more details
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- The contents of all the courses will be available until September 1, 2024.
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- Ágora reserves the right to modify aspects of the content if it deems it necessary.
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- The economic and administrative management of the Ágora is the responsibility of the Experimentalphotofestival non-profit association and the workshops purchased are non-refundable. All courses carry a VAT of 21% included in the price. During the payment process, you will be asked for a Passport number, NIE/NIF/CIF that must be provided solely and exclusively for accounting and tax matters.
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If you have doubts, write to us!