An extensive Photography Exhibition covering Contemporary Latin America:'Resiliencia' currently on show at Milli Reasürans Art Gallery between 7-30 April 2011

Organized by PhotoEspaňa, 'Resiliencia' exhibition features the works of ten contemporary photographers chosen by the curator Claudi Carreras Guillén. * The notion of Resilience from

which the show’s title was taken, qualifies the regenerative capacity of a body after an impact,

and bears witness to this constant acclimation. The name is defined as “Capacity of a solid to recuperate its original form and size, when the forces causing the system’s deformation cease.”

In Latin America the artistic process arises in the midst of political, economic and social

turmoil. The artists found themselves compelled to explore new forms of conceptualization in order to draw attention to their projects amidst a sea of possibilities. Besides a wish to portray the changes taking place around them, they also reflect the role of images in society, employing all available sources in the creation of their work. In this way, habitual paradigms are questioned, and new visual codes of continual mutation occur.

The photographers whose works are selected for this exhibition are Ana Cecilia Gonzales Vigil, Livia Corona, Ramiro Chaves, Tomás Munita, Mark Powell, Óscar Fernando Gómez Rodríguez, Morfi Jiménez, Nicola Okin Frioli, Dante Busquets and Pavka Segura.

Ana Cecilia Gonzales Vigil´s project, “When the Tremor Stops”, shows images taken in Perú´s central coast in 2008, one year after the brutal earthquake that shook the country. It is possibly the work that most clearly identifies itself with the concept of resilience that gives title to the exhibition.The rebuilding task has not yet allowed the inhabitants of the area to return to everyday life, to normality. In her images the inhabitants try to rebuild their lives in totally devastated surroundings. What strikes one most is the look of normality on the faces of the persons portrayed in these images.

Livia Corona's 'Two million homes for Mexico', addresses directly the housing situation in Ixtapaluca, one of the towns with a fastest demographic growth rate in Latin America. Her images delve into the effect of the state housing policy on the people who suffer from it. They show in full front views the physionomy of these new urban settlements that experiment an exponential growth.

Ramiro Chaves' images take us to Miramar (Argentina), a small village that got flooded when the waters of the Mar Chiquita lake rose and then had to be moved elsewhere. The author guides us through unaccustomed landscapes charged with homesickness and mixed feelings. The inhabitants of the area had to leave their homes and businesses due to the succesive risings of the lagoon waters. Still, they refused to leave for good and instead they went on living beside its limits, where they are constantly at risk.

Livia Corona's 'Two million homes for Mexico', addresses directly the housing situation in Ixtapaluca, one of the towns with a fastest demographic growth rate in Latin America. Her images delve into the effect of the state housing policy on the people who suffer from it. They show in full front views the physionomy of these new urban settlements that experiment an exponential growth.

Ramiro Chaves' images take us to Miramar (Argentina), a small village that got flooded when the waters of the Mar Chiquita lake rose and then had to be moved elsewhere. The author guides us through unaccustomed landscapes charged with homesickness and mixed feelings. The inhabitants of the area had to leave their homes and businesses due to the succesive risings of the lagoon waters. Still, they refused to leave for good and instead they went on living beside its limits, where they are constantly at risk.

Tomás Munita, the Chilean photographer, investigates the everyday life of a community of islanders of the south of Perú who produce guano, the animal manure used as a natural fertilizer that, after several decades without any commercial interest, now makes a comeback due to environmental policies and organic farming. His documentary style is more conventional than that of the rest of the participants. Nonetheless, he endows his images with a saturated atmosphere that describes the details of an especially difficult job very well.

Mark Powell, who is born in the USA but currently living in Mexico, shows a selection of portraits taken on the streets of Mexico City. His images, which are ironic and quite sarcastic, give a very personal view on the contrasts of this metropolis.

Óscar Fernando Gómez' images reflect his own observations in his daily life.

Morfi Jiménez Mercado, a portrait photographer from Peru, presents a selection of portraits taken in the Peruvian Andes. It is probably the most archetypical project of all and the one that comes closest to the stereotypes we, who live in other parts of the world, associate with Latin American reality.

Nicola Okin Frioli portrays Central American immigrants at the southern border of Mexico. "The other side of the American Dream" gives a face to the situation of frustration and disappointment that suffer thousands who try to cross the border, but fail.

Dante Busquets and Pavka Segura show in their project "Pioneers" the everyday images of Ciudad Satélite and Villa Coapa, two neighbourhoods in the outskirts of Mexico which are very different from each other but carry the 'Mexican Soul'.

The exhibition can be seen at Milli Reasürans Art Gallery from April 7- 30, 2011.

* Independent curator, currently researcher on photography in the Department of Visual and Design Studies in University of Barcelona. Recently he curated the exhibition ‘Laberinto de miradas: un recorrido por la fotografia documental en Ibero Americaexhibition ‘ toured 28 different cities in 19 Latin American countries.