Javier Inés. BARCELONA UNIVERSAL KGB

Vicente con Cabezon

Javier Inés. BARCELONA UNIVERSAL KGB

30.01.2025 — 29.03.2025

Javier Inés. BARCELONA UNIVERSAL KGB

Javier Inés’ images of the 1980s are the dual chronicle of Barcelona’s transformation, culminating in the celebration of the 1992 Olympic Games. Through the use of portraiture, Inés documents the great urban and cultural change of the city, which in the pre-Olympic period began to become the object of desire of many other cities around the world.

It was a dimorphic transformation, pivoting between institutional modernizing impulse (urban and cultural) and cultural contestation; between official euphoria and subversion.

Javier Inés’ gaze oscillates between these two poles of aesthetic and moral values of pre-Olympic Barcelona, through its protagonists: writers, architects, designers and other post-modern actors; and anonymous characters, alternative artistic collectives and rebels, with their own spaces, on the other.

The Barcelona underground, a vibrant and transgressive underworld, where artists, bohemians and characters of the night who defy the rules of the moment coexist, becomes the main material of her creation, as reflected in this exhibition. Inés captures her protagonists almost always in black and white, in friendly backlighting, in a bold way, with empathy and humor; he speaks to us of the subject and her surroundings in a delicate balance between the intimate and the theatrical.

In this sense, the exhibition brings together a selection of vintage photographs that constitute an archive with a broad cultural value: they show the historical context of pre-Olympic Barcelona, a part of which escaped at the time to the official narratives.

During the photographer’s lifetime, part of the works were exhibited in two emblematic spaces of the Barcelona nightlife scene: El KGB and Universal. It was in 1986 and 1988, respectively. Colita was the one who told us about the great talent of Javier Inés and the existence of the archive, which thanks to Juanjo Rotger, his partner, has been preserved intact since his death in 1991. Now, 34 years later, by the hand of RocioSantaCruz, it is presented to the public for the first time.

 

PRESS

https://rociosantacruz.com/sobre-javier-ines-en-el-heraldo-de-aragon/
https://rociosantacruz.com/juanjo-rotger-i-el-legat-del-fotograf-javier-ines-en-punt-informatiu/
https://rociosantacruz.com/javier-ines-el-fotografo-que-busco-incomodar-retratando-la-barcelona-underground-en-shangay/

    • https://rociosantacruz.com/sobre-javier-ines-en-el-heraldo-de-aragon/
    • https://rociosantacruz.com/juanjo-rotger-i-el-legat-del-fotograf-javier-ines-en-punt-informatiu/
    • https://rociosantacruz.com/javier-ines-el-fotografo-que-busco-incomodar-retratando-la-barcelona-underground-en-shangay/

      Javier Inés, un cometa fugaz en la Barcelona de los ochenta. En La Vanguardia

      https://loeildelaphotographie.com/en/rociosantacruz-javier-ines-barcelona-universal-kgb/

    • https://www.exibart.es/exposiciones/el-retorno-de-javier-ines-a-barcelona/
    • https://www.barcelona.cat/barcelonacultura/es/recomanem/barcelona-anos-ochenta-vista-fotografo-javier-ines
    • https://rociosantacruz.com/javier-ines-un-cometa-fugaz-en-la-barcelona-de-los-ochenta-en-la-vanguardia/
    • https://loeildelaphotographie.com/en/rociosantacruz-javier-ines-barcelona-universal-kgb/

 

 

 

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Con el apoyo de / Amb el suport de / With the collaboration of

Con el apoyo de / Amb el suport de / With the collaboration of