Rubén Acosta has brought his latest work to the Puerto Calero gallery. This exhibition narrates, under the title of Polis, the intricacies of urban planning in China and the events surrounding the Three Gorges Dam. The photographer from Lanzarote considers his photographs as his daughters since he gives birth to them and gives them a name and confesses that an image shot by him pleases him when he gets "goosebumps when he sees it." His works since graduating in Image Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid and completing the master's degree in photography EFTI (Madrid) have earned him the Futuro Prize, Master of Photography EFTI Image Center Madrid in 2001, the selection for Discoveries PhotoEspaña 2002, the first prize for the Photographic Series, Graphic Design and Individual Photography in the young artists contest of Lanzarote in 2001 and 2003 and the First Prize Lanzarote Plastic Arts Contest in 2007.
What will the viewer find in Puerto Calero?
What I will present on Friday is about the trip I made to China in 2007 and it is an exhibition that was already in Madrid in July during the Photoespaña Festival. It is a mixture of documentary and artistic photographs. I wanted to bring it to Lanzarote because I am from here and so that the people of Lanzarote can see it. In fact, on this occasion I have made a small adaptation.
How did you decide to go to China?
For a topic that I had discovered on the Internet and that I was investigating. Then I contacted the journalist from La Vanguardia for China to see how he saw me going there. On this occasion, and as so many other times, I set myself up there with an idea, but once in the place I realized that it was not going to be as I had planned it at first.
I was in China for a month and it was quite intensive. Several factors came together there; first, private property does not exist and it is a society ordered from the State, which is what I try to reflect in the second part of the work. Then I also deal with urban planning planned from the citizen and its reflection in the construction of cities.
"If a photo doesn't give me goosebumps, I don't consider it mine"
Do you usually say that you are not a great traveler because you love to return?
The truth is that I love being at home and I also believe that a trip has three parts: planning the trip, the trip itself, and returning home to assimilate the trip. I can't be traveling all day because it's like stress, but I can't be in one place all day either, but I like to be excited because I'm going somewhere and come back excited from that place.
What do your photos mean to you?
My photos are my daughters because I give birth to them and give them names. If a photo doesn't excite me and doesn't give me goosebumps, I don't consider it mine. That is why I sometimes include photos in exhibitions that are not aesthetically beautiful but that excite me and I consider them part of me.
What do you tell me about culture in Lanzarote?
What culture, here the State does not provide citizens with culture and it is the citizens who have to fend for themselves. That is one of the reasons why I exhibit in Puerto Calero. I am very excited to be there because it is a private gallery that supports people, let's say? out of charity.
What is Lanzarote missing at a cultural level then?
First of all, I demand a photography center, taking into account the number of amateur people there are on the island? In addition, promotion mechanisms would be needed for the people here. A moment ago I just received an email from the Canary Islands government saying that they want to open a space in Madrid to promote Canarian culture from discographies, books, exhibitions? I don't even think it needs to be a real space and a virtual one would suffice, but we have to have a place.
You have successfully promoted yourself, haven't you?
I have been lucky because I studied abroad and knew people from abroad. Of course, I haven't waited for them to come looking for me here, but I have gone myself.
Do you have a favorite job?
I suppose that like everyone else, the first exhibition you do and also the one you are going to do later. The first one you exhibit because it is the first one that has excited you and the next one because you already know that you are going to get excited again. The favorite is never usually the one you just finished because you have worked on it so much that you end up a little disgusted with it. That is why I always let my works rest, the one in China, for example, I had left it to rest for six months after the return.
With what look should the viewer approach Puerto Calero?
In this exhibition I talk about a local Chinese problem but that in the end becomes a global problem, so don't arrive thinking "look, this is like in Lanzarote" but rather "look, this also happens in Lanzarote".
