About the Exhibition
\ nRevel on the bold photographic series titled \;De Natura Libris&nb sp\;as it portrays our interactions with books &ndash\; both physical and abstract. The corporeality of a book is captured through its structures\, textures\, forms and signs of use. Experiences brought on from reading and touching a book are ultimately individual\, evoked by various attributes\ , such as the contents of a book\, its textures and smells\, the memories it awakens or simply the aesthetic beauty of its parts. By reading and usi ng books\, people create connections. Each journey through a book is perso nal\, as are the interpretation of these photographs.
\nAs writer an d historian Roger Chartier describes \;De Natura Libris \;conjures several philosophical questions\, like &ldquo\;What is a book?&rdquo\; fr om German philosopher Immanuel Kant. His answer distinguishes between the book as a material object\, an "opus mechanicum" which belongs to whoever bought it and the book as a discourse addressed to the public\, whose owne r is the author. French philosophers Michel Foucault and Jean-Paul Sartre pondered on &ldquo\;What is an author?&rdquo\; and &ldquo\;What is literat ure?&rdquo\; Both these questions were answered by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges\, who stated\, &ldquo\;A book is more than a verbal structure or a series of verbal structures\; it is the dialogue that establishes wit h its reader and the intonation that it imposes upon his voice and the cha nging and durable images it leaves in his memory.&rdquo\;
\nIn the 1 7th century\, metaphorical language often allowed individuals to think abo ut the double nature of books. Thus in 1680\, a Madrid printer\, Alonso V& iacute\;ctor de Paredes\, inverted the classic metaphor that described hum an bodies and faces as books. He considered that books\, a human creation like man\, have a body and soul.
\nThrough \;De Natura Libris&nb sp\;viewers are led to hope that books will not disappear. This &ldquo\;cu be of paper with leaves&rdquo\; as Borges described\, is still the object most appropriate to the habits and expectations of readers who engage in a n intense and profound dialogue with the works that make them think or dre am.
\nÁ\;lvaro Alejandro Ló\;pez is a photographer from Mexico City. Having worked in the publishing industry for many years\, Lop ez recently began exhibiting his personal photography projects. He has exh ibited in Mexico\, the United States\, Canada\, Japan\, Spain\, Belgium\, Iceland\, Switzerland\, Germany and the Netherlands. Lopez was also select ed as one of the winners of the Arte en la Red by Casa de Amé\;rica representing Madrid.
\nLopez&rsquo\;s contact with and learning abou t photography started early. His great-uncle had books\, prints\, document s\, letters and photo negatives of different authors\, artists and photogr aphers with whom he directly worked with as a museographer\, such as Edwar d Weston\, Henri Cartier-Bresson\, Robert Capa\, David Seymour and Manuel Á\;lvarez Bravo.
\nhttps://mdpls.libnet.info/event/11016343 URL;VALUE=URI:https://mdpls.libnet.info/event/11016343 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR