The photo exhibition “Pastinski”, authored by photographer Giuseppe Marija de Llobet, opened on April 25 in the gallery of the Cervantes Institute in Belgrade.
Pastinski is a pseudonym for a self-taught painter who discovered his passion for painting at the age of 78. As an expression of freedom and pure love for art, he left behind numerous works that decorated the family apartment in the heart of Barcelona. Photographer Giuseppe Maria de Llobet recorded his last exhibition in a unique way and turned it first into a photo book, and now into an exhibition that opened last night in the gallery of the Cervantes Institute in Belgrade.
– The exhibited photographs were taken in the apartment where the Pastinski family lived for generations. His daughter Margarita is the last one who stayed there, until she was forced to move out due to the growing housing crisis and the rapidly increasing cost of living due to uncontrolled tourism and money inflows – explained the author of the exhibition.
The photos were taken when she moved out of the apartment, when he asked her to let Pastinski’s pictures be the last thing she would show.
– So they were left hanging on the wall, in an empty apartment that resembled a gallery, and the whole exhibition was the last retrospective of Pastinski.
The founder of the Belgrade Photo Book Week, photographer David Pužado, added that this exhibition premiered precisely in the Serbian capital, because it is the first time that the photo book “Pastinski” has been turned into an exhibition, precisely at the Cervantes Institute in Belgrade.
As one of the founders and editors of the publishing house Ediciones Posibles, Giuseppe María de Llobet gave a lecture “Possibilities in publishing (in Spain): photo-books as a solution” before the opening of the exhibition:
– In Spain, a few years ago, there was a real boom when it comes to photo books, so publishing also started in that direction. This means that we consider every detail of a photo book, from whether we will have a binding or a spiral, whether the cover will be made of plain paper, cardboard or maybe fabric, how we will position the photos on the pages, whether and where we will leave a blank page as a break between photos. And it is up to the audience to decipher the whole story that the author wants to tell them. And then to return to her several times.
The director of the Cervantes Institute in Belgrade, Giuseppe Maria de Sagara Angel, said that nearly fifty photo-books published in Spain in recent years were purchased for the “Jose Jero” library fund. All these editions will be exhibited in the library during the exhibition, available to the professional community, but also to the interested wider audience.
The “Pastinski” exhibition is organized by the Cervantes Institute in Belgrade and the Belgrade Photo Book Week, with the support of the Spanish Agency for the Promotion of Culture. Professional guided tours through the installation will be organized on May 11 and 25 and June 8, in Serbian and Spanish. The exhibition will be open in the gallery of the Cervantes Institute until June 20.
Bonus video: Denić – The exhibition in Venice talks about the self-colonialism of a small man
Tags: Pastinski exhibition opened Cervantes
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