The Lanzarote creator Lidia Esther Díaz Gil (1972) inaugurates next Thursday at the Center of Plastic Arts of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, the individual exhibition San Juan Night tour, a series composed of five blocks in which the artist formulates a singular creative and reflective proposal around the chaotic agglomeration of the popular cliff of San Juan de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The exhibition, which will be inaugurated at 6:30 p.m. in the aforementioned space located at number 8 Colón street in the Vegueta neighborhood, can be visited until July 28.
Díaz Gil works on the visual representation of the interior of this neighborhood, proposing in her images to make visible what we look at, but do not see. “For this I propose an artistified representation through the genre conventions of the classic photographic landscape”, says the conejera artist. “I do not eliminate the dirt, neglect and decrepitude, so I do not grant them splendor, making this artistification a resource of visibility, not of concealment”.
Through the titles of the project called San Juan night tour and each of the series that compose it, the conventional route of a tourist guide is reproduced. “The guides tell us what and how we should look; and the tourist, in turn, is the first to demand that the experience of a place corresponds to their reading experience.
The contradiction between the title and the motifs that appear in each of my series is an invitation to question the expectations of the observer”, she says. This same strategy is exploited in the latest series of this project called ‘San Juan night tour souvenirs’, in which the photographer has created various tourist merchandising objects.
According to the creator, “the tourism industry is the economic engine of our islands, coasts and cities, but it sets in motion a machinery that seizes the identity of the places and focuses the interest of public policies and investments only in those areas that are touristically exploitable. The images generated by tourism are part of the manifestations of contemporary culture, maintain a relationship of mutual influence with other areas of creation and affect public opinion, generating positions of acceptance and rejection towards places. In this sense, the cliffs are almost invisible, all their identity is based on the representation of their panoramic views”.
“In the process of formation of the individual, in which the landscape plays a fundamental role, the habit of living with the inconvenient, the unpleasant and the uncomfortable is acquired. Gradually, the individual becomes accustomed to low-quality landscapes, transmitters of harmful messages. By assuming their marginal condition, the inhabitants of these neighborhoods lose their critical sense”, adds Díaz Gil.
The photographic series that make up the exhibition are titled San Juan risco panoramic view at nithg, Gardens, Charming corners, Local flora and San Juan night tour souvenirs.
The Lanzarote artist has focused her research interests on language resources, contexts and the processes of coding and interpretation that intervene in the construction of photographic discourse. She currently teaches Photographic Projects and Theory of Photography at the Gran Canaria School of Art and Design.
One foot in the analog and the other in the digital, this is how the photographic practice of this author could be defined. She slides between the care and slowness of artisanal photographic processes, the love of materials and the versatility and agility of the digital world. With her eyes set on the everyday, issues such as identity and environmental degradation focus her discursive concerns.