Blow up

A scene from the 60s features an acclaimed and eccentric photographer in full swing during
a session with a model. He rudely directs her; however, as the woman responds to his demands and the session evolves, his comments become more intimate.

He comes close to her and praises her beauty while the model lies pleased in front of the camera. Finally, the photographer ends up on top of her while he incessantly presses the shutter. Intentionally and without doubt, this particular scene in the movie "Blow Up" is seen through a viewfinder while the actors are having sexual intercourse.

This cult masterpiece was directed by the Italian Michelangelo Antonioni - a movie based on the short story “Las babas del diablo” (1959) by Julio Cortázar and musicalized by the great Zeppelin. It is still a cultural reference point for “mod” aesthetics, recurring to what is seen and what is not, in the limitations and subjectivities when looking, and the theory of different realities. The director proposes “using magnifiers to see things that the naked eye would not be able to capture. When enlarging certain things too much, the object disintegrates and disappears.

There is a moment in which we observe reality, but that moment vanishes… this is partly the meaning of ‘Blow-up’.” (M. Antonioni).

Galería Azur’s first exhibition of 2023 draws a parallel with the story that inspired the film. It raises questions, represents abstractions, it encrypts messages so that, the audience is capable to interpret the ideas or abstract images by “focusing” on the necessary to “stop seeing” other things within the “curatorial line”.