Accustomed to talking about the negative side of technology, we can forget the important role it plays sometimes to keep our affections safe and, ultimately, our humanity. connected, a project by Félix Valiente in collaboration with Samsung The Frame, It comes to remind us of this positive part of the devices that invade our lives, recovering the feeling of those months in which it was impossible for us to see or hug our loved ones.
And it is that, during the months of confinement, the photographer Félix Valiente made some photographs through video calls to numerous familiar faces of the national scene, including artists such as Paco León, Eduardo Casanova, Ana Duato, Hiba Abouk, Maxi Iglesias or Jaime Lorente, who are some of the protagonists of these unique pieces.
Leticia Dolera, portrait of the 'Connected' project.
The exhibition is a unique tribute to technology and how it has been the link between people in the hardest moments of the pandemic, when we could not be close or show affection physically.
"The idea of photograph from a distance It occurred to me while chatting with friends through video calls. As we talked, I couldn't help but frame and visualize still images in my mind, which I could keep. immortalizing a unique moment”, Félix tells us, whose work can be seen on Friday the 8th and Saturday the 9th of October, only two days in the exhibition hall of the Ateneo de Madrid (Calle del Prado 21), during from 10am to 2pm and from 5pm to 9pm.
“This idea I proposed to carry out with several friends as an experiment, playing with them, and after a few days I realized the magnitude that was acquiring and that if he did something with those images, he wanted it to help in some way the people most affected by the situation.
Nico Romero, portrait of the 'Connected' project.
In this way, the project took a solidarity look, since all the images are for sale and the proceeds will be donated entirely to the Food Bank.
“That is the purpose of the exhibition, not only to show a moment in the life of those portrayed during the pandemic, but also to be able to contribute a grain of sand to society, which is why the entire proceeds of the exhibition will go to Fesbal (Food Bank), which it helps something essential in life: being able to eat to live”, the photographer points out.
Jaime Lorente, portrait of the 'Connected' project.
A CRUCIAL MOMENT IN HISTORY
This project by Valiente, based on the search for beauty without artifice and on reflecting in a disruptive way how the relationship between the subject and the portraitist changed during the pandemic, In one of the hardest and strangest moments that humanity has experienced, he offers us a different photographic vision.
Felix Brave.
Gone are the usual techniques, exchanged for the technology that has accompanied us in this situation of confinement, which has become something essential and almost indispensable for communication and 'contact' of almost all the inhabitants of the planet.
Indeed, technology has been the key to these unions and to reinforce the relationship between the portraitist and the person portrayed, creating new ties and avenues of artistic expression, and hence the collaboration with Samsung The Frame televisions, which are present in this exhibition as a digital canvases, projecting not only photographs but also unpublished videos of the creative process, with the latest QLED technology.
Laura Sánchez and David Ascanio, portrait of the 'Connected' project.
Samsung The Frame, which works as a television when it is turned on and as a work of art, personalized for each user, when it is turned off, breaks down the barriers between art and technology. In fact, through collaborations with leading museums and galleries around the world, it offers more than a million users the chance to enjoy artistic works in 4K quality from their homes.
Ana Polvorosa, portrait of the 'Connected' project.
"The confinement, as it happened to the vast majority of the population, had a shock effect on me," Valiente recalls for Condé Nast Traveler. The mandatory stoppage of professional and personal activity It left me stuck for the first two weeks, not knowing where to go with a lot of ongoing projects that could not be carried out and that they meant spending a lot of time outside of Spain”.
“From those two weeks, I changed the way I see things and I realized how lucky I was, in a comfortable house and surrounded by my family, my partner and our three children, with whom I could now enjoy time and get to know each other even better”, she points out. “I have to say that I consider myself a privileged And I remember that stage very fondly".
And then he gave himself the paradox: "Although I felt that I was not in a creative situation, without realizing it I was creating something, that is collected in this exhibition", explains Félix, for whom the most special thing has been "having been able to share hours with those portrayed, talking and dealing with issues that you may not deal with at a bar counter. Through the window of my computer, I would open another one where the person was, stripping away their privacy”.
Eduardo Casanova, portrait of the 'Connected' project.
And what was the biggest challenge? “The sessions that we carried out did not imply a great complexity, it was about doing it as easy as possible so that the methodology did not interfere with fluency. Of course, sometimes placing the phone or looking for the perfect frame could be a bit chaotic, this I think was the most difficult challenge in each session”, the artist answers.
“Sometimes we got it done in the first ten minutes, other times it took over an hour to get it done. But this process was so much fun, There was no lack of laughter, jokes. Repeatedly, the device fell to the ground, as is the case of the portrait of Irene Visedo, which arose as a result of seeing how she leaned over to pick it up, hence the framing and perspective.”