The photographic series Inexorable brings together vintage photographs taken and printed by Colita between 1960 and 1980.

According to Francesc Polop, director and heir of the Colita Archive: “The images in this group spoke of abandoned objects, uninhabited landscapes, and lived-in spaces; in short, of the passage of time and its inexorability. In order to make this passage visible in a radical way, she decided to produce prints with a final tea bath and, moreover, to abandon them to their fate in a dark, damp space, exposed to all possible adversities: humidity, dust, water seepage. This deliberate mistreatment gave shape to the series conceived, not without irony, for lovers of the vintage.”

The process-based nature of the work reinforces the artist’s reflection on the fragility of memory and the inexorable action of time upon the image as matter. With the intention of recording within it the trace of time, Colita expresses its inexorable advance in the form of sediment that adheres to the sensitive surface of the objects and settings captured. Time thus manifests itself as an ineluctable force that transforms everything it touches, that is, as a persistent mark engraved in the interstices of the spaces and objects portrayed.

The narrative that contextualizes these images unfolds within an aesthetic of everyday life. Through this approach, the photographer assigns historical and symbolic value to common and recognizable elements, which means that Colita not only records, but also documents and interrogates.

Some of the photographs from Inexorable were published in two historical works: Una tumba, in collaboration with the writer Juan Benet (Lumen, 1971), and Els Cementiris de Barcelona: una aproximació (Edhasa, 1981), which also included images by Pilar Aymerich and texts by Carme Riera. In 2005 and later in 2014, the art gallery La Carbonera and the Fundació La Pedrera, respectively exhibited a selection of the photographs that make up the series.

This project by RocioSantaCruz and the Colita Archive, presented in its entirety for the first time, transcends the strictly documentary archive to become a space for dialogue between subjects, periods, and perspectives. That is, it proposes a reflection on photography as living matter, traversed by memory, experience, and transformation.

In summary, the exhibition reaffirms the continued relevance of Colita’s gaze and her ability to activate, through the photographic image, a dynamic and poetic dialogue between past, matter, and collective memory.

The RocioSantaCruz gallery would like to thank the Colita Archive and especially Francesc Polop, director and heir of the Archive.

*All photographs presented in the exhibition are subject to the following copyright.
©Archivo Colita Fotografía

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With the support of