Alberto Garcia-Alix (Leon), 66 years old, plays a masterful game of double and three exposures. He mixes poetry and painting to “hunt” ghosts at the Prado Museum. The legendary photographer has been wandering through Madrid’s empty galleries for four years, taking photos and trying to create new masterpieces with light.
His unexpected trompe l’oeil, analogical, and anachronistic make up the exhibition Fantasia en el Prado’ at the Botanical Garden, which runs until August 28th. PHotoEspana will open the festival of images that is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Garcia-Alix was already present at the birthing of a contest that recognizes his maturity as well as his teaching.
A huge self-portrait where the photographer’s face is merged with Elena Bonheur’s lion in ‘El Cid,’ or the recreation of “Las meninas” are both emblems of Garcia-Alix’s exhibition. Garcia-Alix claims that it offers the metaverse between the Photography and the Prado>>.
I respect light, time and brushstrokes. I took those of Goya, Velazquez to repaint his half buried dog. I also took those of Velazquez to remake Las meninas. I have covered ‘Gioconda with a terrorist stain, I have taken over Rubens frenzy to capture the things he didn’t dare paint in his time, Garcia-Alix explains in a motorcycle jacket, cap, and cracked voice.
Image from the exhibition “Fantasies at the Prado”. / Alberto Garcia-AliX
Garcia-Alix says that nothing can compare to the emotions he felt while working with the paintings. He is still faithful to his analog Hasselblad in black and white, a technique he uses since 40 years. Although digital technology has changed the image, Garcia-Alix does not accept a horse that he didn’t reject. He says that while digital technology has its virtues, he can still see the light through the viewfinder with an analog camera and feel the film. He laments that the digital shot and its processing are a huge falsification in the photographer’s emotions.
What are the keys to keeping your eyes open and continuing to see the world through the lens? Keep the poetic gaze, curiosity, and the desire for play alive. He smiles and says that I still have a childish spirit.
The photographer says that each painting is a world. He has taken it to create and build another one. He plays with blurring and focus, using his imagination and a small vibrating flashlight as his only tools. He has thus “repainted” Prado masterpieces using light, according to organizers. This creates phantasmagoria, and gives mystery, tension and movement to the painting, and gives the sculptures flesh, and breath.”
Alberto garcia-AliX
Garcia-Alix explained that he didn’t always get what he wanted during his visits to the museum. However, he was able to express his frustration and find joy in other moments. He says photography is about looking intently and that’s exactly what he does. He adds that it is better to have learned something because the Prado has a great school for portraits.
It displays 35 images in medium and large format. These are the trophies from the phantasmagorical hunt in the museum of what was first notary “photographer”, National Photography Award 1999 and Enaire Foundation Trajectory in this year. All of them are printed on silver bromide gellatin paper, which is a “procedure in danger of extinction” that makes sense for this project.
Alberto garcia-AliX
This adventure began in 2017, when two photographs were taken by the Fundacion de Amigos del Museo del Prado as part of a commemorative project. The author explains that despite finishing the work, I was still fascinated at the photographic dialogue found in many of these works. So I decided to continue my photographic hunt through Prado on a personal level with permission from the museum.
