Aitor Ortiz

Aitor Ortiz - Walls of Light 008

Technique: Digital photo printing on aluminum

Artist Biography: Bilbao, Spain. 1971 Beyond the documentary photography of architecture and industry, claiming the dilution factor and the transmutation of reality that is associated with photographic representation, Aitor Ortiz works with space, architecture and objects as elements that give rise to a series of visual and cognitive unknowns. Ortiz is repeatedly interested in posing a series of dilemmas between representation and interpretation (perception) and establishes a relationship between the content of his images, the physical properties of the materials on which he reproduces his work and the position of the pieces in the exhibition space. Aitor Ortiz seeks to establish a broad spectrum of works and the relationships between the photographed places, the conscious and subconscious mechanisms involved in the process of manipulating an image: the eye (interpretation, framing, contextualization...), the camera (focus/blur, optical distortion, transmission of movement...) and the brain (the limitations of an imperfect artifact in the interpretation of data and empirical abilities: experience, association of concepts...) that culminate in the exhibition space, where the physical experience once again transcends the content of his photographs as part of a process of constant interaction between representation and the viewer's perception. Among his latest solo exhibitions are those held by the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (2011); Fotografiska (Swedish Museum of Photography, Stockholm, 2012) and the Community of Madrid at the Sala Canal de Isabel II, Madrid (2012). His work has earned him, among others, the City of Palma Award, the ABC Photography Award, Grand Prize of Honor at the Biennale of Art of Alexandria (Egypt), First Prize Villa de Madrid of photography. His works are part of collections such as MNCARS, Fundación La Caixa, ARTIUM, CAB, IVAM, AXXA, Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, MACUF, Foto Colectania, Fundación Telefónica, etc.

 

Beyond the documentary photography of architecture and industry, claiming the dilution factor and the transmutation of reality that is associated with photographic representation, Aitor Ortiz works with space, architecture and objects as elements that give rise to a series of visual and cognitive unknowns. Ortiz is repeatedly interested in posing a series of dilemmas between representation and interpretation (perception) and establishes a relationship between the content of his images, the physical properties of the materials on which he reproduces his work and the position of the pieces in the exhibition space. Aitor Ortiz seeks to establish a broad spectrum of works and the relationships between the photographed places, the conscious and subconscious mechanisms involved in the process of manipulating an image: the eye (interpretation, framing, contextualization...), the camera (focus/blur, optical distortion, transmission of movement...) and the brain (the limitations of an imperfect artifact in the interpretation of data and empirical abilities: experience, association of concepts...) that culminate in the exhibition space, where the physical experience once again transcends the content of his photographs as part of a process of constant interaction between representation and the viewer's perception. Among his latest solo exhibitions are those held by the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (2011); Fotografiska (Swedish Museum of Photography, Stockholm, 2012) and the Community of Madrid at the Sala Canal de Isabel II, Madrid (2012). His work has earned him, among others, the City of Palma Award, the ABC Photography Award, Grand Prize of Honor at the Biennale of Art of Alexandria (Egypt), First Prize Villa de Madrid of photography. His works are part of collections such as MNCARS, Fundación La Caixa, ARTIUM, CAB, IVAM, AXXA, Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, MACUF, Foto Colectania, Fundación Telefónica, etc. In Muros de Luz, the contrast between the organic landscape and the structured process of marble extraction from a quarry attracted me to create other constructive possibilities based on the experience of a photographer and an architect to configure, suggest and verify new spaces. The close and the unfathomable, the visible and the imaginable, the limits between the inhuman and the habitable, between light and shadow, danger and vertigo are recurrent aspects in this work. This series of photographs was made in collaboration with the architect Josep Egea. From some images a dialogue was generated between architect and photographer, addressing the idea of physical vacancy through virtual procedures and mechanisms of perception and visual interpretation to emphasize the construction of a mental space, a place of non-existent coordinates, but that take shape before our eyes. In general, the project aims to produce immaterial realities, but which the mind is capable of constructing. Suggesting and reconstructing from the individual individual experience of the spectator. A place of friction between physical space and mental construction.