Architectural structure takes centre stage as protagonist in the work of Dionisio González. The buildings in his photographs were ideas, concepts, designs which never came to fruition, or which emerged as spatial volumes that have since been demolished.

Either they were never saturated, congealed, into existence amongst the universe of ideas for habitable space, or their memory is slowly lost as their foundations are overlayed as consequence of development. These buildings are architectural and social concepts given a second chance at existence in the photographs of González, which lend them tangible substance.

González theme in this exhibition is the transformation of society in a post-war Europe that was “marked by deep social, cultural, economic and political crisis” (González 2019).

According to the photographer, it was an architecture and social model that emerged following the “emptiness and leveling” caused by bombing and population movements (idem). It remains (perhaps intentionally?) unclear if González is referring more holistically a leveling and emptiness of society and community, or the literal razing to the ground of city centres and industrial areas.

The Concrete Island exhibition (Ivory Press Madrid 29.05 – 27.07) is formed by two series. Eutopía o Dispersión is a series of photographic prints, a blending of architectural rendering and landscape photography, which explores the validity of modernist architectural concepts in the context of today’s juncture of the digital transition and environmental nihilism (Fig.1 & Fig. 2).

Construir/Habitar/Existimar (Fig.3 & Fig.4) is an installation consisting of holograms, architectural models, press cuttings and images, which takes – in the words of González – “a ‘mockumentary’ form where fiction and reality are crossed”, weaving images of the greats of modernist architecture into fictional depictions of non-events and meetings (González 2019).

The exhibition Concrete Island was recognized with the PHotoESPAÑA Festival OFF Award 2019 and was held at Ivorypress Madrid which specializes in artist books and engages in aspects of art exhibition, book publishing and audiovisual production and educational programmes (PHotoESPAÑA 2019).

According to Elena Ochao Foster, Founder and CEO at Ivorypress, González uses “past and present research into digital city studies” – the likes of which is being used in leading architecture and urban planning schools – to conceptualise and underpin his work (González 2019).

González has a digital photography, multimedia and cinema/ TV art background and is a Professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Seville (Taubert Contemporary 2019).

Images

All images photographed by Gordon Sutherland during an exhibition visit on 17.06.19

Sources

González, D. (2019) Concrete Island. Madrid: Ivory Press. Legal deposit: M-16293-2019

Taubert Contemporary (2019) Dionisio González: selected works. Available at https://taubertcontemporary.com/artists/dionisio-gonzalez/ [Accessed 17 June 2019]

PHotoESPAÑA (2019) PHotoESPAÑA Awards 2019 winners. Available at http://www.phe.es/en/photoespana-awards-2019-winners/ [Accessed 17 June 2019]