Past and present, memory and its construction

The exhibition by Ana Teresa Ortega, winner of the 2020 National Photography Award, covers her work from the 1990s to the present day, including some previously unseen pieces. In the words of the artist, born in Alicante in 1952, "this is the first time that this selection of projects can be seen creating synergies and relationships between them, dialoguing in an exhibition context." 

Curator: Pep Benlloch

The exhibition, co-produced with the Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana and curated by Pep Benlloch, is the result of a public call by the Consorci de Museus Trajectòries, which aims to review the careers of artists and collectives from the Valencian Community, highlighting the work of creators such as Ana Teresa Ortega and their contributions to Spanish contemporary art. In it, the author invites reflection on themes such as the construction of individual and collective memory, exile, identity, and literature as the guardian of memory.

With a chronological approach, the exhibition provides an in-depth look at this diverse and committed photographic work. The exhibition also includes a series of projects covering the Second Republic, the Civil War, and the Franco dictatorship. "As apprentices of history, we see many gaps and voids to fill. These projects have attempted to fill them, question them, make them visible, and learn from them." Thus, Ortega explores prisons set up in the postwar period, public works born of forced labor, and scenes of scientific exile.

Download the room sheet

		Ana Teresa Ortega Aznar was born in Alicante in 1952. She began her photographic work in the 1990s. She is a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Valencia and co-director of the Master's Degree in Photography, Art, and Technique at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. The central theme of her work is the fragility of historical memory. Her work reflects on the media as a territory of domination and its effect on a society that has forgotten how to think historically, the theme of exile as an allegorical evocation of various forms of oblivion and exclusion, as well as the dissolution of the memory of history, which, through different discursive strategies, influences how our culture has been and continues to be built largely on forgetfulness, on intentional oblivion. These themes are addressed repeatedly and constitute the cornerstone of his work.
		Catalog co-published with the Generalitat Valenciana Produced in co-publication with the Generalitat Valenciana, the volume brings together Ana Teresa Ortega's work from the 1990s to the present day. The project takes as its starting point the 1990 exhibitionVisión-revisiónand as its closing point her latest projects, carried out over the last decade.
		Exhibition co-produced with: