exhibit: Foto a Foto: Un Retrato de Espana (Photo by Photo: A Portrait of Spain)
The image of Spain, in the average Filipino’s mind, is locked in stasis. It is a rather unflattering picture painted by Jose Rizal’s two scathing novels and by history classes discussing 300 years of Spanish colonial rule.
The National Hero, in a letter to his friend, Dr. Ferdinand Blumentritt, wrote: “When someone from Northern Europe talks about Spain you would hear only sighs, praises for the blue skies, the perfumed breezes, … That is true, because one always talks longingly about what one does not have.” Rizal was in Madrid at the time and he was less than enthralled by the Spanish capital.
“The climate of Madrid is horrible. In the morning one does not know if it will be cold or warm at midday.” Rizal grouses about pneumonia-causing wind, poorly constructed houses, and rheumatism-laced winters before ending abruptly: “Much more can be said of Madrid, but I have no more time to talk of them.”
A century or so has passed since he wrote that letter and the Spain Rizal knew has changed. Foto a Foto: Un Retrato de Espana (Photo by Photo: A Portrait of Spain), a traveling exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, is a crash course in what has happened in the last 60 years.
Sixty photographs, spanning the 1950s to the 2000s, taken by 15 of Spain’s best photographers constitute “a visual trajectory showing the evolution of Spanish cities and their inhabitants.”
In place of Padre Damaso, there is Ramon Masats’ image (above). Taken in 1960, it shows novices playing football: a young man, black habit flapping about his legs, makes a diving save while the rest of his cassocked brethren look on.
The exhibition, according to Jorge Domecq, Ambassador of Spain to the Philippines, addresses the recent history of Spain and the transformations it has undergone. “The great Jose Rizal would surely have been amazed by them.”
(on view at the Metropolitan Museum until Jan. 12, 2012)
