Juan Hita Bueno – Invited art historian and photographer
Friday, 23 October – h 3.00 / 3.30 pm
Fortezza da Basso, Spadolini Pavilion, Theatre Area
Art historian and self-taught photographer, for more than a decade Juan Hita Bueno has set his eyes and camera on the Alhambra, the best preserved and most important architecture of Andalucía, Spain. His passion for that UNESCO World Heritage site is rooted in childhood, when he used to go with his family to the Fortaleza Roja. Since 2006 he has worked on a project aimed at immortalising that fortress complex in Granada, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada.
Art was the horizon at which Juan Hita Bueno initially looked as a scholar. Nonetheless, he soon approached photography because that medium allowed him to explore the infinity of the Alhambra – as if he were wandering through Jorge Louis Borges’ Labyrinths. In his view, that inspiring place stirs emotions and feelings as its forms and colours appear to show up by magic, as do mysterious lights and shadows evoking the Thousand and one nights. Besides, he thinks that “any season of the year is a good time to photograph the Alhambra and its surroundings as you can always find shelter there, and enjoy an immersive experience”.Indeed, showing through the pictures taken by Juan Hita Bueno is the “immanence” perceived by Umberto Baldini when, with him and Rolando Bellini, he visited the Alhambra in 1995.
The Spanish author presented here conceives photography as a medium for the critical analysis of art, following a methodology derived from Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti’s thought.
(photo: HOMENAJE A LA CIUDAD PALATINA DE LA ALHAMBRA, Photographic collage)
