Talk between José Luis Cuevas and Itala Schmelz

Lateral presents a talk between the artist José Luis Cuevas and the curator Itala Schmelz.

In this meeting, the photographer José Luis Cuevas will talk with the curator and researcher Itala Schmelz about the approaches and concerns that gave rise to the realization of the exhibition A crow eats, a tree grows, a man falls. Starting from an open conversation, the potential of fiction to create narratives and imaginaries that transcend the documentary will be investigated.

In this exhibition, the Mexican photographer José Luis Cuevas presents part of the long-term project "Present Prosperity", carried out in Japan between 2017 and 2019. With a look that is recognized as foreign and biased, attentive to what lives in the air Beyond the bodies, Cuevas delves into an environment crossed by economic and technological development, as well as by the narratives of recent nuclear history.

Taking the thought of the novelist Kenzaburo Oé (Japan, 1935-2023) as a reference, Cuevas portrays a rarefied territory, where the monstrous appears not as a form of marginal identification, but as the very condition of any human presence.

In an alienated present, determined by consumption and violence, A crow eats, a tree grows, a man falls is an invitation to find closeness in what the highly stereotyped cultural imaginary has made us define as foreign and different.

José Luis Cuevas (Mexico, 1973) He completed a postgraduate degree in advertising creativity from the University of Communication, began in photography taking a course at the Photographic Club of Mexico, and in the Document and Fiction comprehensive program of the Image Center, in where he developed his first project La Pestosa, a series about a meeting place between alcoholics and prostitutes in the Historic Center. He has done artist residencies in Colombia (through the Artist Residency Exchange Program); in Orleans, France (by Association Lumen), and in San Agustín, Oaxaca (production and training residency at the Center for the Arts). He received the City of Gijón International Photojournalism Award (2004). He obtained the Jóvenes Creadores scholarship (2007) for the development of his work El hombre average. With this same work, he was selected by the PHotoEspaña Descubrimientos program (2008) and was awarded an honorable mention at the Photography Biennial in Mexico (2008); Two years later, he once again received a mention at the Biennale for his Nueva Era project, where he investigates man's failed spiritual search. He received second place at the Sony World Photography Awards (2010) and a special mention at the Cemex New Journalism Award (2006).

— Lateral