Juan Diego Valera

Ca l’Isidret was invited by the Photoforum Pasquart to develop a collective project specific to its exhibition spaces. As they were preparing their upcoming residency in Biel, the notion of doubt gradually emerged as the core theme of the project: “a very open idea that at the same time fits very well with our essence as artists, always doubting and hesitating about the necessity and utility of our creations, at both emotional, cognitive and, finally, at artistic levels.”

Ca l’Isidret produced every image presented in the exhibition during their 10-days residency at the end of April in Biel, photographing the city’s dwellers, its streets and animals, directing their gaze and pointing their cameras at a delicate array of details: domesticated plants and flowers, tedious street signage, shiny and dusty cars, flying crows, statues in the old town, close-up portraits. Accompanying them throughout their simultaneous discovery and shooting of the city was a questioning about wealth. Having heard multiple times in Biel that Switzerland was the richest country in the world – and having promptly verified that the assertion was unfounded – this recurring claim or label nonetheless stuck with them and shaped their experience in Biel. While wealth is not straightforwardly a topic of the exhibition, this statement and the self-perception it implies underlied the processes of production and of selection of the images.

Danaé Panchaud (Director of Photoforum Pasquart)

This work was made by Roger Guaus, Aleix Plademunt and Juan Diego Valera in Biel, 2018.
Exhibition at Photoforum Pasquart, Biel - Bienne from June 29th to August 29th