About the Exhibition
\nRevel on the bold photographic series titled \;De Natura Libris \;as it portray s our interactions with books &ndash\; both physical and abstract. The cor poreality 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 con tents of a book\, its textures and smells\, the memories it awakens or sim ply the aesthetic beauty of its parts. By reading and using books\, people create connections. Each journey through a book is personal\, as are the interpretation of these photographs.
\nAs writer and historian Roger Chartier describes \;De Natura Libris \;conjures several philosop hical questions\, like &ldquo\;What is a book?&rdquo\; from German philoso pher Immanuel Kant. His answer distinguishes between the book as a materia l object\, an "opus mechanicum" which belongs to whoever bought it and the book as a discourse addressed to the public\, whose owner is the author. French philosophers Michel Foucault and Jean-Paul Sartre pondered on &ldqu o\;What is an author?&rdquo\; and &ldquo\;What is literature?&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 ve rbal structures\; it is the dialogue that establishes with its reader and the intonation that it imposes upon his voice and the changing and durable images it leaves in his memory.&rdquo\;
\nIn the 17th century\, met aphorical language often allowed individuals to think about the double nat ure of books. Thus in 1680\, a Madrid printer\, Alonso Ví\;ctor de P aredes\, inverted the classic metaphor that described human bodies and fac es as books. He considered that books\, a human creation like man\, have a body and soul.
\nThrough \;De Natura Libris \;viewers are l ed to hope that books will not disappear. This &ldquo\;cube of paper with leaves&rdquo\; as Borges described\, is still the object most appropriate to the habits and expectations of readers who engage in an intense and pro found dialogue with the works that make them think or dream.
\n&Aacu te\;lvaro Alejandro Ló\;pez is a photographer from Mexico City. Havi ng worked in the publishing industry for many years\, Lopez recently began exhibiting his personal photography projects. He has exhibited in Mexico\ , the United States\, Canada\, Japan\, Spain\, Belgium\, Iceland\, Switzer land\, Germany and the Netherlands. Lopez was also selected as one of the winners of the Arte en la Red by Casa de Amé\;rica representing Madr id.
\nLopez&rsquo\;s contact with and learning about photography sta rted early. His great-uncle had books\, prints\, documents\, letters and p hoto negatives of different authors\, artists and photographers with whom he directly worked with as a museographer\, such as Edward Weston\, Henri Cartier-Bresson\, Robert Capa\, David Seymour and Manuel Á\;lvarez B ravo.
\n\;
\nhttps://mdpls.libnet.info/event/11217785 URL;VALUE=URI:https://mdpls.libnet.info/event/11217785 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR