Exhibition for the IV Art and Environmental Cycle. "The caves of Steel" by Manuel Álvarez Diestro
09/07/2023.
[ALICANTE] Spain
metalocus, ANTONIO CORREDERA
metalocus, ANTONIO CORREDERA
The photographer Manuel Álvarez Diestro was in charge of creating the exhibition "The Caves of Steel" for the IV Art and Environmental Cycle organized by the Aguas de Alicante museum. The exhibition is available from June 8, 2023, to September 15 of the same year.
In this new exhibition, Manuel Álvarez Diestro continues to investigate the urban condition of our way of living. The work represents a further step in his intense, precise, and interesting research trajectory on the different conditions of the modern city. In this case, the exhibition aims to reflect the expansion of cities through the landscape, exemplifying the cases of three Alicante citizens: Torrevieja, Benidorm, and Alicante.
In this new exhibition, Manuel Álvarez Diestro continues to investigate the urban condition of our way of living. The work represents a further step in his intense, precise, and interesting research trajectory on the different conditions of the modern city. In this case, the exhibition aims to reflect the expansion of cities through the landscape, exemplifying the cases of three Alicante citizens: Torrevieja, Benidorm, and Alicante.
“Following several personal trips to these three Mediterranean enclaves, I consider that the typology of vertical and high-density construction connects very well with the discourse of Asian cities. The relation of the Hong Kong towers has an obvious similarity with Benidorm or the Albufereta in Alicante.
In Torrevieja, a more horizontal expansion model, I have taken the opportunity to juxtapose the buildings with nature, as in other pieces exhibited in the exhibition in relation to Asian metropolises. In the same way, the wink of linking the Alicante enclaves with the rest of the cities is to raise the perception that the citizen has of the city itself. Likewise, value the beauty that radiates from architecture in its relationship with the environment, creating poetic narratives that move away from our vision on a day-to-day basis”.
In Torrevieja, a more horizontal expansion model, I have taken the opportunity to juxtapose the buildings with nature, as in other pieces exhibited in the exhibition in relation to Asian metropolises. In the same way, the wink of linking the Alicante enclaves with the rest of the cities is to raise the perception that the citizen has of the city itself. Likewise, value the beauty that radiates from architecture in its relationship with the environment, creating poetic narratives that move away from our vision on a day-to-day basis”.
Manuel Alvarez Diestro
The Caves of Steel Photograph by Manuel Álvarez Diestro.
The Caves of Steel Photograph by Manuel Álvarez Diestro.
The Caves of Steel Photograph by Manuel Álvarez Diestro.
The Caves of Steel Photograph by Manuel Álvarez Diestro.
The Caves of Steel Photograph by Manuel Álvarez Diestro.
The Caves of Steel Photograph by Manuel Álvarez Diestro.
The Caves of Steel Photograph by Manuel Álvarez Diestro.
The Caves of Steel Photograph by Manuel Álvarez Diestro.
The Caves of Steel Photograph by Manuel Álvarez Diestro.
The Caves of Steel Photograph by Manuel Álvarez Diestro.
The Caves of Steel Photograph by Manuel Álvarez Diestro.
The Caves of Steel Photograph by Manuel Álvarez Diestro.
During the exhibition period, there will be different meetings/debates on the role of architecture in the present and future sustainability of our cities in which Manuel Álvarez Diestro will participate with different architects and architecture organizations from Spain.
“The Caves of Steel” is the name that its author “borrows” from the work of Isaac Asimov for an innovative photographic proposal whose objective is to capture the domination of the human being over the landscape, through urbanization. In Asimov's words:
“The Caves of Steel” is the name that its author “borrows” from the work of Isaac Asimov for an innovative photographic proposal whose objective is to capture the domination of the human being over the landscape, through urbanization. In Asimov's words:
"There was no doubt: the City was the culmination of man's dominance over the environment. Not space travel, not the fifty colonized worlds that were now so arrogantly independent, but the City".
Isaac Asimov
However, the photographer uses it for the photographic proposal that intends to capture the same idea. The exhibition creates a comparison of the architecture of three Spanish cities and other cities around the globe, such as Tehran, Hong Kong, Seoul, Incheon, and Dubai, with the landscape that surrounds them by documenting the different stages of construction of cities and how they overlap with nature.
More information
Author
Curator
Maria Arancha Vidal.
Location
Waters museum, alicante. Spain.
Dates
Thursday, 8 of June of 2023.
Sponsor
College of Architects of Cantabria (COACAN), the Government of Cantabria, and "Santander Creativa". In addition, the artist incubated this project with the support of the TAI University School in Madrid.
Manuel Álvarez Diestro
Manuel Álvarez Diestro. Born in Santander in 1972, is a designer by vocation, although his professional life turns around marketing and communications company. He loves the creativity, the innovation and the "Branding" of the big brands, which closely follows and learning every day.
His passion rides between art and architecture and its way of expression is the photography. He explores the city with his camera looking urban landscapes to revitalize, through the image, the appreciation of the cities in their various developments. We can see these images in his his latest work "New Cairo", "Pyramids," "Parabolic Facades", "Playgrounds of the world", "Souvenirs de Beyrouth", "Dystopic Songdo" and "Amphitheaters".
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