There are many warnings that we receive about the dangers of face checking. In Netflix's documentary Codified Bias we were able to see how racism seeped into the algorithms and, some time ago, the movie El Círculo, on Amazon Prime Video, He presented us with a dichotomy: Does being controlled by cameras all the time make us more responsible or does it take away freedoms?
A new critical and provocative reflection on the subject just came to Photo Colectania (Barcelona) in the form of an exhibition which, from today until March 20, 2022, intends to delve even deeper into the matter, but in a more artistic and visual way.
Face Control is his title and has been curated by the Swiss Urs Stahel, Freelance writer and advisor to the Vontobel Art Collection, among other foundations.
TINA HAGE. Guise #0025, from the series 'Gestalt', 2012.
THE ARTISTS
A total of 20 artists, both established and emerging , are present in the exhibition with their works, which revolve around the bidirectional control that falls on the face. Because yes, we should be concerned about the handling that they could (or, perhaps, already can) exercise the forces of power over our identity, but we must not forget that each one of us also decides the way in which we are perceived in the portraits. Or if not how much beauty filter.
The exhibition brings together different approaches to the subject. Shu Lea Cheang (in the opening photo) introduces " an avatar tracked from her face, turning face tracking technology against itself, thus challenging the aesthetics of global internet capitalism and the politics of identity construction fueled by social media, and exploited by marketing and political control”, as explained by the Foto Colectania Foundation.
With the photographic print Guise #0025, from the Gestalt series (2012), Tina Hage seeks to represent the anonymity with which the demonstrations take place at present, that are born in the networks and they materialize in the streets, in a group manner and without recognized leaders.
Daniele Buetti. Are You Talking to Me? – LP, 2019
For his part, Daniele Buetti, with his work Are You Talking to Me? (2019), try to give it a new meaning to the term ‘self-portrait’ hollowing out the center of a portrait and inserting a mirror in the hole so that, paraphrasing Foto Colectania: “If we stood in front of it, we would see ourselves reflected in it. Buetti intends to reinvent the way of seeing portraits merging the subject with the viewer”.
The exhibition, In addition to photos and videos, it includes books by Giambattista della Porta, Johann Caspar Lavater, Duchenne de Boulogne, Alphonse Bertillon, Francis Galton and Léopold Szondi.
Also materials like Kodak Shirley Cards (cards used to calibrate skin tones, shadows, and light during printing process), Vogue Average Cover Photographs ('faces of fashion' or repeating patterns on magazine covers) and a set of Mugshots (police photos).
Face Control It can be visited until March 20, 2022. Tickets are priced at €4 (general) and €3 (reduced).